Retrospective Modern History Preliminary 9780731406845, 1880194763, 1945195485

Table of contents :
Prelims
Retrospective YEAR 11 MODERN HISTORY
Imprint
Contents
Preface
Table of key concepts
Weblinks
About the CD-ROM
Acknowledgements
Chapter 01
Chapter 1 Bismarck and the unification of the German states
Introduction
Role of liberalism and nationalism in creating a sense of German unity
Bismarckian foreign policy
Wars of national unification against Austria and France
The immediate consequences of German unification
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 02
Chapter 2 Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century
Introduction
The South and states’ rights
Slavery and human rights
The North and the issue of national unity
Results of the Civil War
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 03
Chapter 3 The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty
Introduction
Nicholas II as autocrat
Political, social and economic grievances in early twentieth-century Russia
The Tsar’s failure to address the problems of Russia
The role of World War I in the fall of the tsarist regime
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 04
Chapter 4 The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947
Introduction
Zionism — its origins and aspirations
Conflicting Arab and Jewish responses to the Balfour Declaration
The nature of Arab and Jewish responses to the question of a Jewish homeland post-World War II
The United Nations partition of Palestine
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 05
Chapter 5 Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954
Introduction
The impact of French imperialism on Indochina
The rise of Vietnamese nationalism and ‘war’ against the French
The growth of Vietnamese nationalism/communism
The defeat of France
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 06
Chapter 6 Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s
Introduction
Geographic, ideological and political motives for the testing of nuclear weapons by western powers in the Pacific
Use of the Marshall Islands by the United States for nuclear testing
Use of Mururoa Atoll by France for nuclear testing
Use of Australia by Britain for nuclear testing
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 07
Chapter 7 The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s
Introduction
Segregation in the USA in the 1950s
Martin Luther King and the use of non-violence to achieve civil rights objectives
The development of more radical methods and individuals in the 1960s
Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 08
Chapter 8 The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Introduction
Kennedy in November 1963
Death of a president: Dallas, Texas, 22 November 1963
The impact and aftermath of the Kennedy assassination
The Warren Report — evidence and conspiracy theories
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 09
Chapter 9 The historical investigation
Getting started — choosing a topic
Investigation underway: reading and note-making
The writing process
Presenting your work
The finished product
Chapter 10
Chapter 10 The world at the beginning of the twentieth century
Introduction
The nature of European society
Imperialism: a world of empires
Emerging forces and ideas
Causes of World War I
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 War on the Western Front
Introduction
The reasons for the stalemate on the Western Front
The nature of trench warfare
Life in the trenches: experiences of Allied and German soldiers
Tactics and strategies to break the stalemate
Change over time: Allied and German soldiers’ attitudes to the war
HSC exam practice
Chapter 12
Chapter 12 The home fronts in Britain and Germany
Introduction
Total war and its social and economic impact on civilians in Britain and Germany
Recruitment, conscription, censorship and propaganda in Britain and Germany
The variety of attitudes to the war and how they changed over time in Britain and Germany
The impact of the war on women’s lives and experiences in Britain
HSC exam practice
Chapter 13
Chapter 13 Turning points
Introduction
Impact of the Russian withdrawal
Impact of the United States’ entry into World War I
General Ludendorff’s Spring Offensive
The Allied response
HSC exam practice
Chapter 14
Chapter 14 Allied victory
Introduction
Events leading to the Armistice, 1918
Reasons for Allied victory and German collapse
The Treaty of Versailles
The roles and differing goals of the peacemakers
HSC exam practice
Glossary
Index

Citation preview

YEAR 11 MODERN HISTORY

Maureen Anderson | Anne Low | Ian Keese

First published 2008 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 42 McDougall Street, Milton Qld 4064 Typeset in 9.75/13pt Palatino © Maureen Anderson, Anne Low, Ian Keese 2008 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication data Anderson, Maureen. Retrospective: year 11 modern history. Includes index. For secondary school students. ISBN 978 0 7314 0684 5 (pbk.). 1. History, Modern — Textbooks. 2. World history — Textbooks. I. Low, Anne. II. Keese, Ian. III. Title. 909.08 Reproduction and communication for educational purposes The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of the pages of this work, whichever is the greater, to be reproduced and/or communicated by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). Reproduction and communication for other purposes Except as permitted under the Act (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher. Front cover images: still from A Very Long Engagement, © The Kobal Collection/Warner Bros./Bruno Calvo; poppies, © Carol Grabham; mushroom cloud, © Photodisc, Inc; statue of Ho Chi Minh, © Corbis/Sygma/Les Stone; John F. Kennedy in motorcade, © Corbis/Bettmann. Cartography by MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane and the Wiley Art Studio Illustrated by the Wiley Art Studio Printed in Singapore by Craft Print International Ltd 10 9 8 7

In this book, the word ‘Aborigine’ rather than ‘Koori’ is used when referring to indigenous Australians. The issues raised are not unique to the indigenous people of New South Wales and so the Australiawide reference has been maintained. It is recommended that teachers should first preview resources on Aboriginal topics in relation to their suitability for the class level or situation. It is also suggested that Aboriginal parents or community members be invited to help assess the resources to be shown to Aboriginal children. At all times the guidelines laid down by the Department of Education should be followed.

Contents Preface  vi

Chapter 3

Table of key concepts  vii Weblinks  viii

the decline and fall of the romanov dynasty 41

About eBookPLUS  ix

Introduction  42

Acknowledgements  x

Nicholas II as autocrat  43 Political, social and economic grievances in early  twentieth-century Russia  44

part 1

The Tsar’s failure to address the problems   of Russia  51

Case studies 1

The role of World War I in the fall   of the tsarist regime  53

Chapter 1

Bismarck and the unification of the German states 3

Meeting objectives and outcomes

Introduction  4

Chapter 4

Role of liberalism and nationalism in creating   a sense of German unity  6 Bismarckian foreign policy  10

the origins of the arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 63 Introduction  64

Wars of national unification against   Austria and France  11

Zionism — its origins and aspirations  67 Conflicting Arab and Jewish responses   to the Balfour Declaration  74

The immediate consequences   of German unification  15 Meeting objectives and outcomes

61

19

Chapter 2

The nature of Arab and Jewish responses   to the question of a Jewish homeland   post-World War II  78 The United Nations partition of Palestine  81

Yankees and Confederates in the american states in the mid nineteenth century 21

Meeting objectives and outcomes

83

Chapter 5

Introduction  22 The South and states’ rights  22

Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 85

Slavery and human rights  26

Introduction  86

The North and the issue of national unity  29

The impact of French imperialism on Indochina  86

Results of the Civil War  34

The rise of Vietnamese nationalism and ‘war’  against the French  89

Meeting objectives and outcomes

38

The growth of Vietnamese   nationalism/communism  94

part 2

the historical investigation 165

The defeat of France  98 Meeting objectives and outcomes

101

Chapter 9 Chapter 6

prelim heading

Nuclear testing in the pacific, 1950s to 1960s 103 Introduction  104

Geographic, ideological and political motives   for the testing of nuclear weapons by   western powers in the Pacific  104 Use of the Marshall Islands by the United States   for nuclear testing  106 Use of Mururoa Atoll by France for   nuclear testing  112 Use of Australia by Britain for nuclear testing  118 Meeting objectives and outcomes

123

the historical investigation

166

Getting started — choosing a topic  166 Investigation underway: reading   and note-making  170 The writing process  173 Presenting your work  173 The finished product  176

part 3

preliminary Course core study: the world at the beginning of the twentieth century 177

Chapter 7

the Civil rights Movement in the USa in the 1950s and 1960s 125

Chapter 10

Introduction  126

the world at the beginning of the twentieth century 178

Segregation in the USA in the 1950s  127

Introduction  179

Martin Luther King and the use of non-violence   to achieve civil rights objectives  132

The nature of European society  180

The development of more radical methods   and individuals in the 1960s  138

Emerging forces and ideas  197

Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement  141 Meeting objectives and outcomes

143

Causes of World War I  199 Meeting objectives and outcomes

207

part 4

Chapter 8

the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Imperialism: a world of empires  188

145

Introduction  146

hSC Course core study: World War I 1914–1919: a source-based study 209

Kennedy in November 1963  147 Death of a president: Dallas, Texas,   22 November 1963  148

Chapter 11

War on the Western Front 211

The impact and aftermath of the   Kennedy assassination  153

iv

Introduction  212

The Warren Report — evidence and   conspiracy theories  158

The reasons for the stalemate   on the Western Front  212

Meeting objectives and outcomes

The nature of trench warfare  215

Contents

163

Life in the trenches: experiences   of Allied and German soldiers  220

Chapter 13

turning points

288

Tactics and strategies to break the stalemate  227

Introduction  289

Change over time: Allied and German soldiers’  attitudes to the war  241

Impact of the Russian withdrawal  289

HSC exam practice 248

Impact of the United States’ entry   into World War I  294 General Ludendorff’s Spring Offensive  301

Chapter 12

the home fronts in Britain and Germany 250 Introduction  251 Total war and its social and economic   impact on civilians in Britain and Germany  251 Recruitment, conscription, censorship and  propaganda in Britain and Germany  267 The variety of attitudes to the war and   how they changed over time in   Britain and Germany  275 The impact of the war on women’s lives   and experiences in Britain  280 HSC exam practice 286

The Allied response  306 HSC exam practice 308

Chapter 14

allied victory

310

Introduction  311 Events leading to the Armistice, 1918  311 Reasons for Allied victory and German  collapse  320 The Treaty of Versailles  320 The roles and differing goals of the peacemakers  323 HSC exam practice 328 Glossary  330 Index  336

Contents

v

preface The authors have written Retrospective to address  the demands of the revised Stage 6 NSW Modern  History syllabus and the needs of the students who  study it. The text focuses on the Preliminary Course  and extends to cover ‘World War I 1914–1919’, the  Core topic of the HSC Modern History course.  Retrospective provides opportunities for students  to investigate significant features, issues, people,  events and concepts relevant to the late nineteenth  and the twentieth century world. Within this  context, the text facilitates students’ development of  the methods of historical inquiry and consideration  of related historiographical issues, especially the  perspectives that sources reveal, the usefulness  and reliability of sources, and differing historical  interpretations of the past. Retrospective comprises four parts. Three parts  reflect the Preliminary Course syllabus:  1.  Case studies 2.  The historical investigation 3.  Core study: the world at the beginning of the  twentieth century. The fourth part addresses the Core topic of the  HSC Modern History syllabus: 4.  HSC Core study: World War I 1914–1919. As the syllabus states, Parts 1, 2 and 3 can be  studied in any order and Part 2 can be incorporated  into the investigation of any other topic.  Retrospective includes the case studies that   our survey of teachers has indicated are the   most popular in their own right and most useful  for students going on to study related topics at  HSC level. Many chapters provide an introduction  to National and International Studies options that  students can study at HSC level. We have included  an additional author-developed case study,   ‘The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’,  which provides background for the popular  History Extension topic ‘The Nature of the  Presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’. 

vi

preface

Pursuing the process of historical inquiry is at the  heart of the study of any historical topic. In Part 2,   ‘The historical investigation’, Retrospective provides  guidelines to help students to gain confidence in  working independently, and developing a research topic  and product in a methodical and professional manner.  Retrospective Part 3, ‘The world at the beginning  of the twentieth century’, provides opportunities for  students to engage more overtly in the development  of their skills in using and analysing sources,  determining their reliability, and identifying the  nature and value of evidence they might or might  not provide. The chapter looks broadly at political,  economic and social features of ‘The world at the  beginning of the twentieth century’. In incorporating  an investigation of factors that influenced the  outbreak of world war in 1914, the chapter also  provides the background necessary to students’  understanding of the HSC Core covered in Part 4.  Each chapter of Retrospective provides questions  on sources to develop students’ skills in the process  of historical inquiry. At the ends of the case studies  and Preliminary Core chapters are additional  questions and activities that address specific  Preliminary Course objectives and outcomes. At the  end of each of the four chapters on the HSC Core  topic, we have included HSC-style practice questions  and source material. The authors of Retrospective have all enjoyed many  years of teaching history. That means we have been  able to pursue, through our work, something we  love. It also means that we have each experienced the  enjoyment of working with students who share this  love and who are themselves, through their study of  Modern History, developing their knowledge of how  the study of the past informs our understanding of  the present, and how the development of historical  skills enables them to think critically, ask intelligent  questions and judge the value of the answers they  receive. We hope this book helps the students who  read it to engage in this process too.

table of key concepts 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

10

Bismarck

Yankees and Confederates

romanov dynasty

arab–Israeli

Indochina

Nuclear testing

Civil rights US

JFK assassination

preliminary core

Chapter

The following table can be used by students and teachers to identify the chapters where particular concepts  are featured.

KeY CoNCeptS autocracy

✔

✔

✔ ✔

capitalism ✔

communism decolonisation ✔

democracy

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

feminism

✔

globalisation

✔ ✔

imperialism ✔

industrialisation

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

internationalism liberalism

✔

✔

✔

nationalism

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

✔

✔ ✔

pan-nationalism ✔

racism revolution

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

sectarianism ✔

self-determination socialism terrorism

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔ ✔

✔

✔

table of key concepts

vii

Weblinks To access the weblinks for this book, log in to the JacarandaPLUS website at  www.jacplus.com.au Chapter no.

Chapter name

1

Bismarck and the unification of the German states

Napoleon — paintings

13

Ems telegram

Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

27

John Brown (4 links)

3

The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

50

October Manifesto 1905

58

Petrograd Soviet Order No. 1

62

Romanovs

4

The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

66

Islam

5

Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

95

Declarations (2 links)

95

Vietnamese independence

Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

106

Nuclear weapons

111

Nuclear Claims Tribunal

124

Nuclear testing resources (7 links)

134

Letter from Birmingham Gaol

7

The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

136

I have a dream

144

Claudette Colvin (3 links)

151

Warren Commission

156

Warren Commission

157

Black Jack (2 links)

160

Zapruder film

163

Warren Commission Report

The historical investigation

174

Active and passive voice

11

War on the Western Front

229

Verdun (3 links)

12

The home fronts in Britain and Germany

274

Propaganda (4 links)

13

Turning points

298

Zimmerman telegraph

306

Tanks in World War I

311

War in the Air

316

Amiens

8

9

14

Weblinks

5

Weblink

2

6

viii

page no.

The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Allied victory

About eBookPLUS Next generation teaching and learning This book features eBookPLUS: an electronic version of the entire textbook and supporting multimedia resources. It is available for you online at the JacarandaPLUS website ( www.jacplus.com.au ).

Using the JacarandaPLUS website To access your eBookPLUS resources, simply log on to www.jacplus.com.au using your existing JacarandaPLUS login and enter the registration code. If you are new to JacarandaPLUS, follow the three easy steps below. Step 1. Create a user account The first time you use the JacarandaPLUS system, you will need to create a user account. Go to the JacarandaPLUS home page ( www.jacplus.com.au ), click on the button to create a new account and follow the instructions on screen. You can then use your nominated email address and password to log in to the JacarandaPLUS system. Step 2. Enter your registration code Once you have logged in, enter your unique registration code for this book, which is printed on the inside front cover of your textbook. The title of your textbook will appear in your bookshelf. Click on the link to open your eBookPLUS.

Step 3. View or download eBookPLUS resources Your eBookPLUS and supporting resources are provided in a chapter-by-chapter format. Simply select the desired chapter from the drop-down list. Your eBookPLUS contains the entire textbook’s content in easy-to-use HTML. The student resources panel contains supporting multimedia resources for each chapter.

Using eBookPLUS references eBookPLUS logos are used throughout the printed books to inform you that a multimedia resource is available for the content you are studying. Searchlight IDs (e.g. INT-0001) give you instant access to multimedia resources. Once you are logged in, simply enter the searchlight ID for that resource and it will open immediately.

Minimum requirements JacarandaPLUS requires you to use a supported internet browser and version, otherwise you will not be able to access your resources or view all features and upgrades. Please view the complete list of JacPLUS minimum system requirements at http://jacplus.desk.com/customer/portal/ articles/463717. Troubleshooting • Go to the JacarandaPLUS help page at www.jacplus.com.au/jsp/help.jsp. • Contact John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. Email: [email protected] Phone: 1800 JAC PLUS (1800 522 7587)

Once you have created your account, you can use the same email address and password in the future to register any JacarandaPLUS titles you own.

About eBookPLUS

ix

acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the teachers who  reviewed the early drafts and gave valuable  feedback. They would also like to acknowledge  and express their thanks to all the people at John  Wiley Australia who have worked hard to make  Retrospective a reality. We particularly thank Sharon  Ottery who got this project underway and has  kept it under her wing ever since; Carol Grabham,  whose expertise, ‘magic wand’ and perennial good  humour have resolved so many issues along the way  (often before we even realised their existence); Delia  Sala for her great flair with design; Kylie Seaton  for her efforts and persistence in image research  and copyright clearances; and Sharee Burger who,  calmly, efficiently, and without complaint, took on  board a number of last-minute changes. Maureen Anderson thanks her husband, John  Sidoti, who has weathered, with his usual patience,  the highs and lows of the research and writing  process; and would also like to thank Dr Emily  Batache Watt and her Thursday evening French  ‘club’ for their assistance with the translation on  p. 211. Anne Low thanks Steven, James, Japhet,  Sisay, Eleni and Gi for their unwavering loyalty  and support. Ian Keese thanks Enid for her support  and is grateful to Hannah Eady for sharing her  experiences as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. The authors and publisher thank the following  copyright holders, organisations and individuals  for their assistance and for permission to reproduce  copyright material in this book.

Internal design images Digital Stock/© 1995 Digital Stock/Corbis  Corporation; © Digital Vision

Images • Alinari Archive, Florence: source 10.1/Alinari  Archives, Florence • Courtesy of American 

x

acknowledgements

Antiquarian Society: source 2.16 • The Art  Archive: source 12.10/Imperial War Museum  • Austral International  Press: sources 5.10/ Austral Press; 12.11, 12.16, 12.44, 12.51 (p. 287  right)/Austral/Topham Picturepoint • Australian  War Memorial: sources 11.36/Australian War  Memorial Negative No. E01220; 14.8/Australian  War Memorial Negative No. P05359.001; 14.20/ Australian War Memorial Negative No. E04942B  • AAP Image: sources 5.12/AAP/Wideworld;  7.12/AAP/AP/Fred Blackwell; 7.13/AAP/AP/Bill  Hudson; 7.15/AAP/AP; 7.20/AAP/AP/John Gaps  III; 8.2/AAP Image/Jim Sulley/The Image Works  • Bundesarchiv: source 13.6/Bundesarchiv Bild  183-S10394 • Connecticut Historical Society:  source 2.6 • Copyright Clearance Center: source  7.14/By Thomas F. Flannery, in Baltimore Evening  Sun/Included with permission • Corbis Australia:  sources 1.2, 3.2, 6.5, 10.3, 10.6b, 12.37, 12.43/ Corbis/Hulton–Deutsch Collection; 1.16, 1.17, 2.8,  2.23, 3.13, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.17, 5.1, 5.2, 5.15, 5.18, 6.10,  7.3, 7.8, 7.10, 7.17, 8.9, 8.15, 8.16, 10.2, 11.15, 11.21,  11.26, 12.2, 13.1, 13.3, 13.13, 13.15, 13.16, 14.4,  14.7, 14.11/Corbis/Bettmann; 2.7, 3.18, 6.11, 8.7,  8.19, 10.5, 13.20, 13.24 (p. 308)/Corbis; 2.11/Corbis  Australia; 3.3/Corbis/The State Heritage Museum,  St. Petersburg; 3.19/Corbis/epa/Sergi Chirikov;  4.1/Corbis/Richard T Nowitz; 4.4/Corbis/David  Rubinger; 5.6 (left)/Corbis/Paul Seheult/Eye  Ubiquitous; 5.6 (right)/Corbis Images/Christophe  Loviny; 5.7/Corbis/Leonard de Selva; 6.2 (coral  atoll)/Corbis/B.S.P.I.; 6.16/Corbis/Sygma; 8.11/ Corbis/Charles E. Rotkin; 10.6a/Corbis/Massimo  Listri; 11.37a/Corbis/Keystone • Corbis Royalty  Free: p. 170/© Corbis Corporation • © The David  King Collection: sources 3.6, 3.8, 3.11, 3.15 • Digital  Stock: source 2.14a/© 1995 Digital Stock/Corbis  Corporation • Emerald City Images: source 1.1/ Popperfoto • Getty Images: sources 1.12, 10.16, 

11.11, 11.33, 12.9, 12.42, 13.19, 14.14, 14.17/Hulton  Archive; 3.1, 4.9, 10.11/Hulton archive /Stringer;  4.20, 8.1/Hulton Archive/Keystone; 4.21/GPO;  4.22/Fox Photos; 4.25/Getty Images News/Zoltan  Kluger; 5.16/Time & Life/Howard Sochurek; 6.1/ Hulton Archive/American Stock; 6.6/Time & Life  Pictures/Fritz Goro; 6.9/Hulton Archive/Central  Press; 6.17/AFP/Romeo Gacad; 7.1/Scott Olsen;  7.16/Time & Life Pictures/Ben Martin; 8.4/Hulton  Archive/Agence France Presse; 8.8/Time & Life  Pictures/Art Rickerby; 8.13/Time & Life Pictures/ Cecil Stoughton; 8.14/Time & Life Pictures/Carl  Mydans; 8.18/Time & Life Pictures/Stan Wayman;  10.4/Roger Viollet/Harlingue; 10.28/Henry  Guttmann/Stringer; 10.29/Time & Life Pictures/ Mansell; 10.33/Central Press; 11.23/General  Photographic Agency; 11.37b, 12.39/Topical Press  Agency/Stringer; 12.21/Hulton Archive/Topical  Press Agency; 12.22/Hulton Archive/Three Lions/ Stringer; 13.12/MPI/Stringer; 14.15/Time & Life  Pictures/US Army Signal Corps • The Illustrated  London News Picture Library: sources 12.35,  12.36 • Imperial War Museum, reproduced with  permission: sources 11.2/Q 81724; 11.5/Q 45786;  11.7/Q 580; 11.8/Q 4649; 11.18/Q 23944; 11.28/Q  5817; 11.31; 11.46 (p. 248)/Q 6285; 12.7/Q 80366;  12.15/Q 31162; 12.24; 12.27/Q 23584; 12.28/Q  103334; 12.30/Q 110343; 12.32; 12.33; 12.38/PST  11821; 12.45/HU 70114; 13.14/Q 79823; 14.12/Q 9534  • iStockphoto: source 168 • Jack Niedenthal: source  6.7/US Archives • © Jim Blanchard, artist www. jimblanchard.com: source 6.12 • John F Kennedy  Presidential Library: sources 8.5/Cecil Stoughton;  8.6/Robert Knudsen • The Kobal Collection: source  11.40/Nord-Quest/TF1 Films/Sony • Library of  Congress: sources 2.1/Library of Congress, Prints  & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs;  2.4, 2.12, 2.17, 2.20, 2.22/Library of Congress  Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.  20540 USA; 2.25/Library of Congress, Prints &  Photographs Division LOT 11486–A, no. 9 [P&P]; 7.4 (right)/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs  Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, Visual  Materials from the National Association for the  Advancement of Colored People Records • Mary  Evans Picture Library: sources 1.14, 11.1, 11.24,  11.25, 11.38, 12.1, 12.13, 12.29, 12.41, 12.46, 13.8,  14.1, 14.2, 14.18, 14.23 (p. 329)• MAPgraphics Pty  Ltd, Brisbane: sources 1.3, 1.13, 2.2, 4.2, 4.8, 4.12, 

4.15, 5.3, 5.20, 6.2, 6.13, 10.10, 10.13, 10.15, 10.18,  10.23, 10.26, 11.3, 11.4, 11.22, 13.4, 13.17, 14.5  • National Archives of Australia: sources 6.19/ A6455, RC597 PART 3, 6.23/A6457, P215 • National  Archives of Canada: source 11.19/© Public Domain,  source: Library and Archives Canada/C-092414  • Newspix: source 6.24/Milton Wordley • North  Carolina Department of Cultural Resources: source  2.14b/Mr William S Powell and North Carolina  Department of Cultural Resources • © Peabody  Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard  University: source 2.10 • © Photodisc, Inc.:  pages 166, 167 (woman, medal, stopwatch, gun)  • Photolibrary: sources 7.11/photolibrary.com/ Photoresearchers; 1.5, 1.19, 10.7, 10.8, 10.14, 12.12,  12.26/Photolibrary/Mary Evans Picture Library  • Picture Media: source 6.25/Reuters/Andre  Camara • Punch: sources 1.9, 1.15, 2.3, 10.27,  10.31/Reproduced with permission of Punch  Ltd.,  www.punch.co.uk • Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey:  source 8.12/Zapruder Film Copyright © 1967,  (Renewed 1995), The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy  Plaza. All Rights Reserved • Thomson Publishing:  source 4.23/Routledge Atlas of the Arab–Israeli  Conflict 8th Edn by Martin Gilbert ISBN  0415359015 & 0415359007/Published by Routledge  2005 • Ullstein Bild De: source 3.7/Ullstein Bild  Berlin • The Williams School exterior, 1949. © John  E Phay Collection, Special Collections, Department  of Archives and Special Collections, University of  Mississippi Libraries: source 7.4 (left)/The Williams  School exterior, 1949, © John E Phay Collection,  Special Collections, Department of Archives and  Special Collections, University of Mississippi  Libraries

text • Alfred Publishing: page 162/© 1960 Alan Jay  Lerner/Frederick Loewe For Australia And New  Zealand: Alfred Publishing (Australia) Pty Ltd  (ABN 15 003 954 247) PO Box 2355, Taren Point,  NSW 2229, International © Secured. All rights  reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is illegal  • American Zionist Movement: page 68/Included  with permission of The American Zionist  Movement, New York, 2007 • AFP: page 126/Paul  Handley • Barbara Levy Literary Agency: page  222/Included with permission of the Barbara Levy  Literary Agency, © Siegfried Sassoon • Brooklyn  College: page 191/Reprinted with permission of 

acknowledgements

xi

the Estate of Ruth Kleinman and the Department of History, Brooklyn College • David Robie, Dr: page 110/From David Robie, Eyes of Fire: the Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, Lindon Publishing, Auckland, 1986, included with permission of Dr David Robie • © Donald Greenlees: page 106 • Enid Ratnam Keese (Endira): page 78/Extract from E Ratnam, Living to the Full: the Life of Hannah Eady, Writeheart Press, Glenbrook, NSW 2006 • NSW Board of Studies/Modern History Stage 6 Syllabus, © Board of Studies NSW for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2004 • Pan Macmillan Australia: pages 303, 309, 312, 327/Reprinted from Les Carlyon, The Great War, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2006, with permission of Pan Macmillan Australia • Penguin Books Ltd UK: pages 225, 234, 236/From Lyn Macdonald, Somme, Penguin, London, 1993. Reprinted with permission of Penguin Group UK, London • © Professor John Keane pages 119, 121 • Random House Australia: page 221/From E. P. F. Lynch, Somme Mud: the War Experiences of an Australian Infantryman in France, 1916–1919, Random House, Sydney, 2006/Included with permission of The Random House Group Sydney • Random House Group, UK: pages 227,

xii

Acknowledgements

247, 307/From All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, published by Jonathan Cape. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd • The National Archives and Records: pages 151/The National Archives and Records Administration; 156/The National Archives and Records • United States Government: page 107/United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1948 • University of Arkansas Press: page 129/From Bates, Daisy, The Long Shadow of Little Rock (memoir), 1962, reprinted by University of Arkansas Press, 1987 and reproduced by permission of the University of Arkansas Press • Vanessa Griffen, Dr: page 114/Quoted in Vanessa Griffen, ‘Women Speak Out’: report of Pacific Women’s Conference October 1976, Suva, NZ Electronic Text Centre, 2005, www.nzetc.org • Wilfred Owen: page 224 Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of copyright material. Information that will enable the publisher to rectify any error or omission in subsequent reprints will be welcome. In such cases, please contact the Permission Section at John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

part1 Case studies PRINCIPAL FOCUS Students apply historical inquiry methods within a range of historical contexts to investigate key features, issues, individuals, groups, events, concepts and other forces in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Case studies from Europe and North America 1

Bismarck and the unification of the German states

3

2

Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

21

3

The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

41

7 The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 125 8

The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 145

Case studies from Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East 4

The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880s–1947 5 6

1

Retrospective

Decolonisation in Indochina 1945–1954

63 85

Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 103

Preamble: Origins of revolution revolution W period of rapid, extensive change in political and social structures, including a change in sovereignty

The close of the eighteenth century was the ‘Age of Revolution’. During this era, the world was transformed by great social, economic and political forces that travelled far beyond national boundaries.

Enlightenment W period in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when it was believed that institutions should be established on the basis of reason rather than tradition and superstition feudal system W structured society based on land ownership in which royalty and wealthy nobles owned land and controlled power and the lower classes worked for them

Seeing the light The origins of revolution lay in the seventeenth century, during the period known as the Enlightenment — the time of ‘bringing light into darkness’. The Enlightenment or Age of Reason was a revolution in ideas and thinking that opened a new path to knowledge that came from a scientific and rational foundation. The Enlightenment challenged the authority of the past in many ways. W Philosophers, politicians and scientists questioned the rules and beliefs of the Christian church in Europe and the hierarchical feudal system in which wealth and political power rested with royalty and the nobility. W European navigators crossed oceans and pushed the geographical frontiers, and so questioned the knowledge of the world through their wonderful voyages of discovery. W The right of European kings and queens to govern with absolute power was questioned through passionate discussion of concepts such as human rights, liberty and the law. All men are created equal Revolutionary thought turned to action when, in North America, the British colonies challenged and defeated European power. The Americans rebelled against British rule and made a Declaration of Independence. The Declaration proclaimed the radical political idea that ‘all men are created equal’, with certain inalienable rights: ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and that ‘to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving from their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government’. On 3 September 1783, a new nation emerged when the Treaty of Paris recognised American independence.

fraternity W the bonding together of people through a common purpose; a brotherhood autocratic W exerting unlimited control and authority over others

counterrevolution W a movement that opposes the changes brought about by revolution. During the French Revolution there was counterrevolutionary activity in the countryside of France. conservative W wanting conditions to remain as they are, unchanged

2

Retrospective

Liberté, egalité, fraternité Another revolution of great drama and political significance was played out in Europe in 1789. With the motto ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’, French revolutionaries discredited and deposed the autocratic French King Louis XIV and replaced him with a new republican government of elected representatives. In challenging the position of the greatest European monarch, the French demonstrated the power of ideas. Liberty and nationalism would bring political change that was to shape the modern world. The French Revolution came to represent a great break with the past and so has universal significance. The revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity were the inspiration behind the development of modern western political thought. Along with these inspiring ideals and the rebuilding of French society came revolutionary violence. The bitter political and economic divisions of French society, counterrevolutionary uprising and the conservative backlash to the spread of revolutionary thought bred civil war. Across Europe, a fear of revolutionary change and awareness that revolutionary ideas are not confined by national borders determined the actions of governments for decades after.

1

KEY CONCEPTS Key concepts relevant to this chapter are: W autocracy W liberalism W nationalism W revolution W socialism KEY DATES

Bismarck and the unification of the German states The areas of focus of this case study are: W W W W

The role of liberalism and nationalism in creating a sense of German unity Bismarckian foreign policy Wars of national unification against Austria and France The immediate consequences of German unification

1806–13 Confederation of the Rhine

T French

1815 T Congress

of Vienna establishes the German Confederation 1848

T Revolutions

through Europe fail to bring change 1862

T Wilhelm

I, King of Prussia, appoints Bismarck Prime Minister–President 1865

T Austria

and Prussia take Schleswig and Holstein from the Danes 1866

T Austro–Prussian

(‘Seven Weeks’) War Confederation is replaced by the North German Confederation

T German

1870–71 T Franco–Prussian War; North

German Confederation defeats France T Wilhelm I becomes emperor of a unified Germany 1882 T Germany,

Austria and Italy form Triple Alliance

1890 T 20 March Wilhelm II forces Bismarck’s resignation

Source 1.1 Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), German politician and chancellor of the German Empire from 1870 to 1890. It was said that, from the sixteenth century to the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, every generation of the Bismarck family ‘had drawn the sword against the French’. What insight into the politics of nineteenth-century Europe does this image of Bismarck communicate?

3

Introduction

annex W to take possession of new territory Confederation W a league or alliance

constitutional W government carried out in accordance with rules about how a state will be organised and the nature and limits of the government’s power within it

Source 1.2 A nineteenth-century engraving showing the European monarchs and leaders in discussion at the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon. Prince Metternich of Austria is shown standing to the left of centre with arm raised.

4

Retrospective

Revolution in eighteenth-century Europe (see page 2) was characterised by dreams of liberty and equality. After revolution came military dictatorship. The young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, grasped power in France and, in 1804, appointed himself emperor. In 1803, Napoleon had committed France to war and had begun the conquest of Europe. Under his leadership, the French were victorious all over Europe, defeating Russian and Austrian forces at the battle of Austerlitz in 1805. By 1810, he controlled France, Belgium, Holland and some of the Italian and German states. Between 1801 and 1814, Napoleon redrew the map of Europe by annexing the German territories on the left bank of the River Rhine to France. Bonaparte then reorganised the boundaries of the many German states. In establishing the French Confederation of the Rhine, he reduced more than three hundred German states to fewer than forty states. Within the newly created French empire, the feudal system came to an end and the people of Europe were governed by a Napoleonic legal code based upon principles of: W religious freedom W rights of property owners W constitutional government W equality before the law. Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 and was finally defeated by a determined Russian army and the terrifying cold of a Russian winter. In 1815, Napoleon was forced by the French politicians to abdicate (renounce his title) unconditionally and he went into exile on the remote island of St Helena. With Napoleon’s defeat, the conservative politicians hoped to restore the ruling families of Europe to their positions of power. Monarchies had ruled all the major European powers: the Romanov dynasty ruled Russia, the Hanoverian dynasty ruled Great Britain and the independent German kingdom of Prussia was ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty. At a meeting known as the Congress of Vienna in 1815, these European monarchs joined forces in an effort to repress liberal thinking and the political change unleashed by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. In source 1.2, how has the artist portrayed the meeting of leaders? How useful is this source for historians studying revolutions? 2. Compare this painting of the conservative European monarchs with paintings of Napoleon from the early nineteenth century. Access the website for this book and click on the ‘Napoleon — paintings’ weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii) to view some examples. Describe how artists generally portrayed Napoleon and what this indicated about his character and influence. Under the leadership of the Austrian politician, Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859), the European monarchs devised a system called the ‘Concert of Europe’, based on international consultation between the ‘legitimate’ rulers of Europe as a means of settling disputes without war. Napoleon’s influence did not, however, end in 1815. Napoleon’s legal reforms, changes to government administration and breaking down of borders spread ideas that would establish new political and social systems throughout Europe.

Source 1.3 A map of Europe and the German states in 1815, after the Congress of Vienna

Territories of Prussia

DENMARK

NORTH SEA

Territories of the Austrian Empire

A SE

38 German states

C

I LT BA

GREAT

Boundary of the German Confederation

BRITAIN

GERMAN NETHERLANDS

A SSI PRU

RUSSIA

Westphalia

BELGIUM

Poland Rhine Provinces

CONFEDERATION

FRANCE

AUSTRIAN AU S

SWITZERLAND

EMPIRE

TRIA

HUNGARY

N

MEDITERRANEAN

SOURCE QUESTIONS

Examine the map of Europe in source 1.3 and compare it with a map of the modern world.

SEA

0

200

400 km

1. In 1815, which countries of Europe occupied a geographic area similar to their area today? 2. Identify the modern countries of Europe missing from the 1815 map. 3. Identify the countries and kingdoms of 1815 Europe that no longer exist.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states

5

Role of liberalism and nationalism in creating a sense of German unity nationalism W sense of a national identity developed from belonging to a group sharing common cultural, linguistic and historical ties, and the desire to work with others to achieve common goals related to these, at times regardless of how this might affect other countries

Two radical new forces that continued to challenge the power of the conservative leaders were nationalism and liberalism.

Nationalism

At the core of so many revolutionary ideas was the belief that people could govern themselves through the creation of a ‘nation’. This sense of a national identity developed from a sense of shared ethnicity (race), historical background, religion, language, culture and geography. Combined with aspirations for indeliberalism W a view of society pendence and self-determination, nationalism became a powerful ideology. emphasising individuals (not classes) and their rights The Napoleonic era heightened the consciousness of the common culture to freedom of political, religious, and language of the independent German states, even if it was for no other intellectual and artistic expression purpose than recognising that France was their common enemy. The French unification W the bringing Revolution and a fear of Napoleon’s armies had inadvertently sparked together of separate entities German nationalism and a move towards unification. to form a unit Source 1.4 Early nineteenth-century nationalist ideals expressed in a pamphlet issued by students from the Patriotic Student Society at the University of Bavaria, after the 1815 Congress of Vienna SOURCE QUESTIONS

Was it for this the glorious victory at Leipzig? Was it for this the final act at Waterloo? No, a thousand times no. For let it be clear that firstly we are Germans. Be it Saxony or Bavaria we share the same Volkgeist, the same language and the common destiny. Is it a crime to stand up and say we are Germans? Never let it be said so. The recent settlement of Vienna must be temporary. How is it that France is a free united country and we the victors are subjects of the ‘ancient regime’. We have a proud tradition of freedom too. Must we bow to the yoke of reactionaries. Our city, our university will not let this happen. We have a past as Germans. We believe, we know we have a future as free Germans, as a German nation. For this will we work; for this will we live; for this will we die.

1. What argument is put forward by the Patriotic Student Society for unification of the German states? 2. Explain the student response to the Congress of Vienna. 3. What is the ‘ancient regime’ referred to in this extract? The growth of liberalism was based upon the demand for guaranteed basic

Liberalism

autocratic W exerting unlimited control and authority over others

representative government W a government founded on the principle that the people should elect their representatives

6

Retrospective

rights such as freedom of speech and the freedom to own property. By 1815 the merchants and tradespeople of Europe demanded a release from the tight government control imposed by autocratic monarchs. At the end of the eighteenth century major developments in technology had resulted in a revolution in European industry. Factory towns grew, and from this emerged an expanding urban class of increasingly wealthy manufacturers and businessmen. Liberalism and nationalism encouraged their desire for political change through limits to the power of the old European aristocracy. The middle class believed their skills and wealth entitled them to a vote. They wanted the opportunity for free trade and the political liberty that representative government would bring. Liberalism also demanded a constitution that would define the rules of government and the limits of the government’s power and guarantee the rights of citizens.

Source 1.5 A nineteenth-century engraving showing Austrian politician, Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859)

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. How has the artist portrayed Metternich in this painting? 2. How did Metternich use his power against the spirit of change that was sweeping through Europe? tariff W a duty or custom imposed by a government on exports or imports

German unity The nation of Germany did not exist in 1815. Prince Metternich of Austria opposed and feared the demands for unity of the 38 German states, believing it would eventually lead to the overthrow of the European monarchies and political instability. The states were dominated by Austria and loosely held together by the ‘German Confederation’ (see source 1.3, page 5). Metternich used the power of Austria and the cooperation of the princes of the various German states to suppress the development of the liberal and nationalist movements. In 1819, the various German princes issued a series of repressive measures, known as the Carlsbad Decrees. The Decrees were designed to stamp out any German revolutionary movement by: W imposing rigid censorship on newspapers W closely supervising meetings in schools and universities W establishing a central investigation committee to report on any suspected revolutionary activity. During the 1820s, Metternich successfully used a network of spies, secret police and international alliances to crush nationalism and liberalism. In 1830, Europe was again shaken by revolution in Paris that sparked demonstrations in southern German states. Two years later, 25 000 German nationalists met in Bavaria to discuss political revolution. Metternich’s response to the appearance of groups like the ‘Young Germany’ movement was further repression, forbidding political associations and popular meetings.

Prussian power Metternich maintained his power for another decade. After 1840, his dominance was undermined by economic growth and, as a consequence, the emergence of a politically and commercially ambitious German middle class. Second to Austria as the most powerful of the German states, Prussia took an economic lead in establishing a system of free trade by negotiating trade treaties with other states and abolishing barriers to trade such as customs and import duties. In 1834, Prussia headed a union of 18 states providing a common system of customs and tariffs. The union was called the Zollverein and it was proof of the benefits to be gained from the states working together. The Zollverein began negotiations to unify currency and the system of weights and measures. It also extended railway links to facilitate communication and transport between member states. This economic cooperation once again encouraged the blooming of liberalism and nationalism. The year 1848 was a momentous one in Europe. It began with high hopes and ended in bitter disappointment. Revolution began again in France, rapidly sparking further rebellions throughout the countryside and cities of Europe. When revolution hit the Austrian capital, Vienna, Metternich’s dominance was finally broken and he fled into exile.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states

7

Revolution had come again to Europe in 1848 for a variety of reasons, including: W dramatic population growth — in Prussia it is estimated that between 1815 and 1848 the population increased by 75 per cent W poor harvests in 1846 and 1847 bringing starvation to rural communities across Europe W sharp rises in food prices in the cities followed by falling standards of living W development of a ‘working class consciousness’ suggesting that only through revolutionary political change would real standards of living improve W middle class dissatisfaction with the lack of political power, employment opportunities and freedom of speech. The 1848 revolutions failed to deliver political change for Europeans because liberals, nationalists and social reformers were not united in their opposition to conservative rule. W The French government was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew, Louis Napoleon. He established himself as the new emperor of France. W In the German states, the group of politicians who had met in May 1848 to draw up a constitution to unify the German people were politically inexperienced and lacked a common purpose. W The rivalry between the two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria, had not been resolved because of a lack of leadership and authority. Political unity could not be achieved while independent rulers maintained their control of the separate German kingdoms, principalities and free towns with their own laws, courts and armies. When Austria was excluded from the proposed German constitution, the forces that opposed liberalism and nationalism were once again victorious. Germany was not yet ready to bring into being the dream of unity. Source 1.6 Extracts from ‘The Fundamental Rights of the German People’, a document issued by the Parliament in Frankfurt in 1848 SOURCE QUESTION

In what way could it be said that the 1848 declaration of the Fundamental Rights of the German People (source 1.6) was a clear example of the power and significance of the French Revolution?

I The German people consists of the citizens of the states which make up the German Reich. Every German has the rights of German citizenship. He may exercise these rights in every German state . . . Every German has the right to sojourn or establish his residence in any part of the territory of the Reich, to acquire real estate of any description . . . II No privilege of rank is valid before the law. Nobility is abolished as a rank . . . Every public office is open equally to all who are qualified . . . IV Every German has the right to express his opinion freely in speaking, writing, printing, or pictorial representation. The freedom of the press may under no circumstances and in no way be limited, suspended, or annulled by means of preventive rules, namely censorship, limitations on printing or the book trade, postal restrictions or other restrictions upon free intercourse . . .

Otto von Bismarck Otto Eduard Leopold of Bismarck-Shönhausen was born in 1815 in the Prussian province of Brandenburg. His father was a ‘Junker’, a member of the politically conservative Prussian landowning nobility. Junkers were devoted to the military life and so his father had also been a military officer. His mother came from a middle-class and well educated family of politically liberal civil servants, teachers and lawyers. Young Otto von Bismarck was sent to school in Berlin where he excelled at sport. When he was at university studying history and law, it is reported

8

Retrospective

divine right W a belief that a monarch’s right to rule was given by God, and not by the people socialism W a doctrine promoting the people’s ownership of a nation’s resources and the redistribution of its wealth democracy W government by elected representatives of the people

patriotism W devotion to and support for one’s country

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. After reading Bismarck’s account of his appointment as Prime Minister–President (source 1.7), explain why Bismarck was chosen by the king for this role. 2. What was Bismarck’s opinion of liberalism? How do we know this? 3. Working in pairs, roleplay a discussion between Bismarck and a member of the Patriotic Student Society (whose views were expressed in source 1.4) on ‘politics and power in Prussia’. Use all the evidence from the sources and information from the text to decide on the opinion and bias each would have. Present both points of view to the class.

that he wasted time and money through excessive drinking and gambling. A large scar on his face was explained as a wound received during one of the 25 duels he was said to have fought while at Göttingen University. After his student days, Bismarck eventually returned to the countryside to run the family estate. Rather than settling down into respectable Junker life, he became bored. He quickly gained a reputation as a man more interested in chasing women and a good time than carving out a career path for himself. At this time he claimed his life goals were simple: to smoke ten thousand cigars and drink five thousand bottles of champagne. Life took a new turn for Bismarck in 1847. He entered politics and he married a deeply religious Lutheran woman named Johanna von Puttkamer. Bismarck entered the diplomatic service, representing Prussia in Vienna, St Petersburg and Paris. During these years, Bismarck established a reputation as an ambitious, ruthless and gifted politician. As a Prussian patriot, he was committed to the Prussian royal family and the belief that the monarch ruled by divine right. As a conservative, he was fiercely opposed to liberalism, socialism and democracy. Wilhelm I became the King of Prussia in 1861. He was determined to bring Prussia into a position of undisputed German leadership and so began strengthening its military power. The Prussian liberals in his government refused to approve his increased military expenditure, believing that Germans should be united through the spread of nationalist ideas and the fostering of patriotism. In response to the opposition from the Prussian liberals, Wilhelm called on the support of Bismarck. In 1862, the Prussian king appointed Bismarck as Prime Minister–President. During the following 27 years of Bismarck’s authoritarian leadership, Prussian power grew and the German states came to dominate Europe. Source 1.7 Bismarck’s account of the meeting with Wilhelm I appointing Bismarck as Prussian Prime Minister–President

The situation only became clear to me when His Majesty defined it in some such words as these: ‘I will not reign if I cannot do it in such a fashion as I can be answerable for to God, my conscience and my subjects. But I cannot do that if I am to rule according to the will of the present majority in Parliament, and I can no longer find any ministers prepared to conduct my government without subjecting themselves and me to the Parliamentary majority. I have therefore resolved to lay down my crown’ . . . The King asked me whether I was prepared as Minister to advocate the reorganization of the army, and when I assented he asked me further whether I would do so in opposition to the majority in Parliament and its resolutions. When I asserted my willingness he finally declared, ‘Then it is my duty, with your help, to attempt to continue the battle, and I shall not abdicate’. I succeeded in convincing him that so far as he was concerned, it was not a question of liberal or conservative of this or that shade, but rather of monarchical rule or parliamentary government, and that the latter must be avoided at all costs, if even by a period of dictatorship . . . Quoted in L. Snyder, The Blood and Iron Chancellor: a Documentary-Biography of Otto von Bismarck, D. Van Nostrand, Princeton, NJ, 1967.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states

9

Bismarckian foreign policy

artillery W mounted guns, movable or stationary, as distinguished from small weapons diplomacy W the use of communication and negotiation between countries as a means of settling disputes and resolving differences

Bismarck immediately began the task of building Prussian military might through: W introducing conscription W establishing a military college to develop a skilled officer elite W constructing a network of railways capable of rapidly moving an army and supplying the forces with modern artillery. Bismarck’s political goal was to establish Prussian dominance of the German states using diplomacy and developing an aggressive foreign policy. He skilfully negotiated alliances with some neighbours while isolating and moving Prussian military might against others. In his inaugural leadership speech to the Prussian parliament, Bismarck held an olive leaf in front of himself as a token of peace and then clearly stated his political philosophy: ‘Prussia must gather up her strength and hold it in readiness for the opportune moment which has already slipped by several times … not by speeches and majority votes are the great questions of the day decided … but by iron and blood.’

Source 1.8 A photograph of a typical group of highly trained Prussian officers who were the basis of Prussian military might and foreign policy and provided a model of organisation followed by other European nations SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Imagine you are one of the Prussian officers photographed in source 1.8. Explain your position and role in Prussian society and your belief in the place of Prussia in Europe. 2. How does the image of the Prussian military fit with Bismarck’s political philosophy as expressed in the text above? 3. What part do you think the military played in Bismarck’s methods of diplomacy and negotiation?

10

Retrospective

Schleswig and Holstein In November 1863, Bismarck used a diplomatic crisis for political gain. When the childless King Frederick VII of Denmark died, a dispute broke out between a German duke and Frederick’s heir, Christian IX, over the right to govern. Denmark had ruled the two duchies (territories) of Schleswig and Holstein for 400 years (see the map in source 1.13, page 14, for their location). Holstein’s population was almost entirely German speaking and it was a member of the German Confederation. Schleswig’s people were both Danish and German speakers and it was not within the Confederation. Possession of the duchies had long been disputed by Prussia. The ethnicity of the people made government of Schleswig and Holstein a thorny issue for German nationalists. Bismarck used the dispute as an opportunity to use ‘blood and iron’. After a period of complex diplomatic manoeuvring, Bismarck persuaded Austria

to join with Prussia in the use of military force to seize control of Schleswig and Holstein. In a war lasting only seven days, the Danes were overthrown and the new Danish king was forced to renounce all claims to Schleswig and Holstein. Under an 1865 agreement known as the Gastein Convention, Prussia received Schleswig and Austria received Holstein. Source 1.9 A cartoon from Punch, 13 August 1864, commenting on the dispute over the right to govern Schleswig and Holstein. The money bags represent Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg (a territory belonging to the Duke of Holstein). The figure tied in the background is King Christian IX of Denmark. The character in the left foreground represents Wilhelm I and Franz Josef I of Austria is on the right. The figure in the centre wears a ‘democracy’ hat and represents the various peoples of the German states and Denmark. SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. How are the leaders of Prussia and Austria represented in the cartoon? 2. What insight does the cartoonist provide into the nature of nineteenth-century European politics and conflict?

Wars of national unification against Austria and France Austro–Prussian War By 1866, Prussia and Austria were in dispute over the manner in which Schleswig and Holstein were governed. Bismarck diplomatically prepared Prussia for future European conflict by isolating Austria. Using Bismarckian diplomacy, he arranged alliances with Russia and Italy and began negotiations with France. Bismarck accused Austria of violating the conditions of the Gastein Convention and announced Prussia’s intention to annex Schleswig–Holstein. Austria called on the military assistance of the other states of the German Confederation and declared war on Prussia. In a striking demonstration of military might, the Prussian forces inflicted a swift and humiliating defeat on Austria and its allies. In the Seven Weeks’ War, Prussia declared its superiority. The Treaty of Prague agreed to: W abolition of the German Confederation W Austrian recognition of Prussia’s leadership of the North German Confederation of 22 states W Prussian annexation of Schleswig, Holstein, the kingdom of Hanover, Hesse, Nassau and Frankfurt.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states

11

clemency W mercy or kindness, particularly that shown to an enemy

Prussian territory now stretched from the French frontier to Poland. King Wilhelm demanded that Austria lose large areas of its territory as punishment for the war with Prussia. Bismarck looked further into the future and opposed his king, preferring to secure Austrian friendship through clemency (see source 1.10). In gaining territory and establishing a new Confederation, Bismarck gained tremendous popular political support in Prussia. He was credited with having achieved the unity that the liberals had failed to deliver in 1848 (see page 8). Bismarck’s foreign policy gathered most of Germany’s northern states into the new North German Confederation. Bismarck’s next move was to bring the southern states into the Confederation and create a nation. Source 1.10 Bismarck’s advice to Wilhelm I, promoting friendship with Austria rather than revenge

We have to avoid wounding Austria too severely; we have to avoid leaving behind in her unnecessary bitterness of feeling or desire for revenge, we ought to keep the possibility of becoming friends again. If Austria were severely injured, she would become the ally of France and of every other opponent of ours . . .

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Bismarck was often criticised for his sudden changes in political policy. He responded by claiming his political judgements were always determined by what he believed was ‘useful, advantageous and right for my fatherland’. Explain the meaning of his advice to Wilhelm I in source 1.10 and suggest how it supports the claim that all decisions were made according to the welfare of Prussia. 2. Using the source and information from the text, explain how Bismarck achieved the unity that the liberals had failed to deliver in 1848. In your answer, consider the goals and shortcomings of liberalism, as well as the strengths of Bismarck.

The Franco–Prussian War The southern German states of Baden, Hesse-Harmstadt, Wurttemburg and Bavaria remained out of the North German Confederation. Bismarck needed to find a means to encourage them to accept Prussian leadership and join the Confederation. Identifying a common enemy had previously proven a means of encouraging the patriotism necessary for unification. In 1868, a dispute between Prussia and France over the accession to the vacant Spanish throne provided the next opportunity for war. Knowing that the French feared the growing power of the German states, Bismarck suggested a German prince as a future monarch of Spain. The French emperor retaliated by requesting an assurance from King Wilhelm that no member of the Prussian royal family would accept an invitation to become a crown head of Spain. Bismarck advised the king to reject the request. Bismarck then published a carefully edited version of a conversation between the Prussian king and Count Benedetti, the French ambassador to Prussia, known as the Ems telegram (source 1.11). France felt insulted by what appeared to be a diplomatic defeat and the hostile tone of the telegram. France declared war on Prussia.

12

Retrospective

Source 1.11 Extract from an English translation of the ‘Ems telegram’ or ‘Ems dispatch’ of 13 July 1870. First is the original telegram from Kaiser Wilhelm’s secretary, Heinrich Abeken, on behalf of the Kaiser, to Bismarck; second is the version as edited and released by Bismarck.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What changes did Bismarck make to the Ems telegram? 2. Why do you think he made the changes and what were their effects? 3. Access extracts from Bismarck’s memoirs on the issue of the Ems telegram by going to the website for this book and clicking on the ‘Ems telegram’ weblink for this chapter. Summarise Bismarck’s account of how and why he amended the telegram.

mobilisation W the organising of military forces in preparation for active service

Original telegram

His Majesty the King [Wilhelm] has written to me: ‘Count Benedetti intercepted me on the promenade and ended by demanding of me in a very importunate manner that I should authorize him to telegraph at once that I bound myself in perpetuity never again to give my consent if the Hohenzollerns renewed their candidature [to rule Spain]. I rejected this demand somewhat sternly as it is neither right nor possible to undertake engagements of this kind [for ever and ever]. Naturally I told him that I had not yet received any news and since he had been better informed via Paris and Madrid than I was, he must surely see that my government was not concerned in the matter.’ [The King, on the advice of one of his ministers] decided in view of the abovementioned demands not to receive Count Benedetti any more, but to have him informed by an adjutant that His Majesty had now received from [Leopold] confirmation of the news which Benedetti had already had from Paris and had nothing further to say to the ambassador. His Majesty suggests to Your Excellency that Benedetti’s new demand and its rejection might well be communicated both to our ambassadors and to the Press. The version as edited and released by Bismarck

After the news of the renunciation of the Prince von Hohenzollern had been communicated to the Imperial French government by the Royal Spanish government, the French Ambassador in Ems made a further demand on His Majesty the King that he should authorize him to telegraph to Paris that His Majesty the King undertook for all time never again to give his assent should the Hohenzollerns once more take up their candidature. His Majesty the King thereupon refused to receive the Ambassador again and had the latter informed by the adjutant of the day that His Majesty had no further communication to make to the Ambassador. With a declaration of war, France appeared to be the aggressor. When nationalist sentiment swept across the North German Confederation, the southern German states rallied to Prussia and joined the Confederation. The first genuinely German army was now formed. It may have been dominated by Prussian expertise and Prussian troops, but it presented a united front. Fighting began in July 1870. German mobilisation was rapid because it had been well planned. The highly trained and well equipped Prussian army, under the brilliant leadership of Count von Moltke, defeated French forces within three months and took over 100 000 French prisoners. For another six months, the war dragged on. The Prussians besieged Paris and began to starve the great French capital into surrender. Cold and hunger finally defeated the French in January 1871. France was further humiliated when a united Germany was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, with King Wilhelm I of Prussia anointed as the first emperor, or Kaiser, of Germany (see source 1.12). In the Treaty of Frankfurt, signed in May 1871, Germany annexed the strategically important and agriculturally rich French territories of Alsace and Lorraine. Germany wanted to ‘punish’ France for the war and so the harsh terms of peace also included a large French war debt to be paid to Prussia. German troops occupied northern France until the debt of 200 million pounds was honoured.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states

13

Government propaganda and Bismarck’s inflammatory speeches, letters and newspaper articles united Germans in their hatred of France. This war established Prussia as head of a German empire, and a united Germany as Europe’s leading power. Source 1.12 A painting from 1871 showing Wilhelm I of Prussia as he is proclaimed emperor of a unified Germany at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris (Bismarck is present in the white uniform).

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What impression of Wilhelm I and Germany does the artist communicate? 2. Suggest why the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, France, was chosen as the location for the anointing of the first emperor of a united Germany. Source 1.13 Map of the German Empire by 1871

DENMARK

BALTIC SEA NORTH SEA

Schleswig

Holstein Hamburg

East Prussia

Mecklenburg Amsterdam

El

Hanover

PRUSSIA

be

NETHERLANDS

O

Brandenburg

de

Berlin

r

Vis tu

la

Warsaw

Westphalia er Riv

RUSSIA

BELGIUM e Rhin

Thuringia River

LUXEMBOURG

Ri ve r

Saxony

Poland

Riv er

Frankfurt Prague

Alsace– Lorraine

Bohemia

Bavaria Da

Wurttemberg

Moravia

nu

be

FRANCE

Baden

River

Munich

Vienna

SOURCE QUESTION

14

Retrospective

SWITZERLAND

Dr av a

N 0

100

200 km

r ve Ri

Compare the map in source 1.13 to the map in source 1.3, page 5. In a paragraph, explain how Europe changed during the nineteenth century.

AUSTRO–HUNGARIAN EMPIRE

Prussia before 1866 Annexed by Prussia 1866–67 Acquired by Prussia or joined North German Confederation, 1866–1867 Incorporated in German Empire 1871 Boundary of the German Confederation 1815 Boundary of the German Empire 1871

The immediate consequences of German unification ‘Blood and iron’ nationalism Source 1.14 A Punch cartoon from 2 March 1878, depicting German supremacy being maintained through Bismarck’s diplomacy

The aggressive nationalism of Bismarck’s ‘blood and iron’ defeated France and unified Germany. The balance of power in Europe was now totally altered. Germany was strengthened at the expense of France while Austria was relegated to a secondary position in Europe. Bismarck was appointed as the Imperial Chancellor of the new German Empire. Bismarck also retained his position of Prussian power, giving him complete control of both German foreign and domestic policy. Bismarck claimed that 30 years of peace would transform Germany into the most powerful nation on earth. Victory in the Franco–Prussian War had profound consequences for Germany and Europe because it resulted in: W benefits to German industry through the payment of the war debt. Bismarck built Germany into an industrial, economic and military giant with a standing army of up to 400 000 men and another 1 500 000 reservists. W development of a system of European alliances as a consequence of Germany’s great military power in Europe. The alliances were unique in peacetime and built according to a nation’s preparedness to go to war in support of an ally. W unification of the Italian states due to the withdrawal of French forces from Rome W war as an instrument of national policy being established as a feature of European international relations. Prussian victories also demonstrated how heavy artillery would dominate modern warfare. W ‘state socialism’ in Germany, with Bismarck using the program of reform from the socialist movement as the model. Germany was established as a European pioneer in improving working-class conditions through the introduction of workers’ compensation, health insurance, state welfare housing and old-age pensions. SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Examine the detail of the cartoon in source 1.14. In one paragraph, explain what comments the cartoonist is making about Bismarck’s unique position in European politics. To build your response you will need to analyse the meaning behind details such as the contents of the garbage bin and the images stuck to the wall. 2. From the information in the text and the evidence from the cartoon, explain how Bismarck attempted to maintain Germany’s position of supremacy in Europe. In adopting a policy of diplomatically isolating France through building relations with Germany’s neighbours, Bismarck sought to ensure German security. The German alliance with Austria was signed in 1879 as a mutual defence agreement against any future threat from Russia. In 1882, Germany and Austria were joined by Italy in forming the Triple Alliance. Despite Bismarck’s efforts to establish a new balance of power in Europe, the bitterness left by the Franco–Prussian war set in place the rivalry that would culminate in World War I.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states

15

Source 1.15 A Punch cartoon from 15 January 1919, illustrating the consequences of the eventual collapse of Bismarck’s diplomacy and the balance of power he had created

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. This cartoon was created after Bismarck lost power. What is the cartoonist’s view of Bismarck’s impact? 2. Explain the comment the cartoonist is making in source 1.15 on the significance of Bismarck’s famous ‘blood and iron’ speech. 3. Conservative leaders of Europe, like Metternich, feared what liberalism and nationalism could bring. What does the cartoon suggest came from the political change that swept through nineteenthcentury Europe?

Bismarck’s departure Reichstag W the lower house, or popularly elected assembly of the German parliament

16

Retrospective

On 3 March 1888, Bismarck announced the death of Wilhelm I to the Reichstag. The conflict and quarrels between chancellor and emperor had been widely reported but Bismarck and Wilhelm I had worked closely together for nearly three decades, they understood one another and they shared a vision for Prussia and Germany. Upon the death of Wilhelm I, power went briefly to his son, Frederick III, who died from cancer three months later. In the same year, the brilliant architect of Prussian military strategy, Helmuth von Moltke, retired. Wilhelm II was the son of Frederick III and Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria of Britain. Wilhelm II was 29 years of age when he came to the throne and felt little loyalty to the 75-year-old ‘iron chancellor’ who ruled Germany in such an authoritarian manner.

Bismarck underestimated the political skill of Wilhelm II and regarded him as too inexperienced and irresponsible to be a serious political force in Germany. Wilhelm II was a nationalist who believed in his divine right to rule a mighty German empire. He advocated an aggressive foreign policy designed to rapidly expand German territory and protect Germany’s ‘place in the sun’. During the reign of Wilhelm I, Bismarck’s power had never been threatened. Wilhelm II made no secret of his contempt for Bismarck, blocking Bismarck’s control at every opportunity and being determined in his opposition to the old chancellor. On the morning of the 20 March 1890, Wilhelm II challenged Bismarck and forced his resignation. Nine days later, with much pomp and ceremony, Bismarck boarded a train and left behind his life of politics and power in Berlin. Bismarck retired to his country estate to write his memoirs, ever hopeful that the emperor would call him back to public office. Bismarck’s political advice was never sought again. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck died on 31 July 1898. It is reported his final word was ‘Forward!’ Germany’s foreign policy was set in a new direction after Bismarck. Wilhelm II took personal control of foreign policy and turned away from the path Bismarck had established. Under Bismarck, Germany became the most powerful nation on the continent of Europe. Wilhelm’s goal was to establish German power across the globe by building up the German navy and encouraging warlike policies and competition with Great Britain. Source 1.16 A cartoon from 1890 depicting Bismarck tendering his resignation to Emperor Wilhelm II

SOURCE QUESTION

In source 1.16, explain what you think the cartoonist is suggesting by: (a) the manner in which Bismarck and Wilhelm II are depicted (b) the image of Wilhelm’s throne (c) the posture of ‘Germania’ in the background.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states

17

Bismarck’s power and peace

telegraph W an instrument that sends and receives messages over long distances

The nineteenth century produced revolution, pitched battles and peace. Events like the Franco–Prussian war brought bloodshed to the heart of the western European world, followed by a six-month siege, the bombardment of Paris and the deaths of thousands of civilians. There were, nevertheless, decades of peace. After Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat (see page 4), Europe avoided a nineteenth-century conflict involving all the great powers. Europeans had never before experienced a period of peace such as the era that came to such a terrifying end in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. The European peace of the Bismarck years was fragile because it was based on a belief that military preparedness would deter aggression. This was the era of diplomatic crises brought about by clashes over the territorial and economic interests of the great European powers. Decisions on whether to compromise or fight relied upon the diplomatic skills of a handful of European statesmen. The great European powers — Britain, France, Russia, Austria–Hungary, Italy and Germany — acknowledged the power that each had to wage war. While not equal in political influence and military might, they were stronger than their neighbours. The ‘Concert of Europe’ continued to provide a forum for diplomacy to deal with European rivalry. The Concert had no written rules or permanent institutions but relied on the personal relationships and understanding built by politicians like Bismarck. Bismarck’s years of peace also brought immense technological and economic change. The railways, the telegraph and steamships ushered in a revolution in communication. European prosperity and social change came from the massive increases in the continent’s manufacturing and agricultural output. Under Bismarck, the new electrical and chemical industries were developed and mineral resources were exploited. Increased wealth gave the opportunity for farsighted social reforms that gave German workers industrial accident and health laws, insurance schemes and pensions. By 1890, Bismarck had developed the economic unity to reinforce German nationhood. Bismarck’s greatest legacy was the creation of a nation from the various kingdoms, principalities and free cities of Germany. Whether Bismarck planned German unification, or whether it was a product of his desire to assert Prussian power against Austria, remains a topic of historical debate. Whether history judges Bismarck as a political realist, opportunist or idealist, his influence in shaping the modern world is undeniable. Bismarck dominated Europe through the force of his personality and intellect. The ‘iron chancellor’ established a triumphant and sovereign German state that became the greatest power of nineteenth-century Europe. Source 1.17 A cartoon from Punch magazine, 29 March 1890, entitled ‘Dropping the pilot’ SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Explain the comment the cartoon in source 1.17 makes about Bismarck’s resignation and departure from European politics. 2. Discuss in groups the achievements of Bismarck’s career then hold a class debate: ‘That the ends justify the means’.

18

Retrospective

Meeting objectives and outcomes Key features, issues, individuals and events

P1.1, P1.2

1. Go through the text and the sources to compile a list of all the key personalities, events and issues that contributed to the story of German unification. Create a board game on a large piece of cardboard divided into squares representing the stumbling blocks and steps on the road to German nationhood. Illustrate your board with relevant cartoons, maps, excerpts from speeches and photographs of personalities. (P1.1)

Change and continuity over time

P2.1

2. When Bismarck was appointed Prime Minister–President of Prussia in 1862, he stated that Prussia’s future would be forged through ‘blood and iron’. (a) Create a timeline of the main events between 1862 and 1888 that achieved Prussian and then German dominance of Europe. (b) Do an Internet search for other key personalities, events and cultural influences that were shaping the western world during this period, for example, Karl Marx, Louis Blanc, Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Darwin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Friedrich Nietzsche, the unification of Italy or the development of trade unionism. Add points from your research to the timeline to create an understanding of the broader historical context of the Bismarck years. (P2.1)

3. Two days after the German Empire was proclaimed in 1871, a report from the English newspaper, The Times, provided a comment on the significance of the event: ‘Thus begins the new political life of Germany and, whatever may betide, a remarkable period in the world’s history is about to be displayed before us.’ Draw a mind map summarising the events in world history that were directly related to, and followed on from, the unification of Germany. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry

P3.1–P3.5

4. Research one of the major events that occurred during the period of the unification of the German states, such as the Seven Days’ War. Imagine you are a journalist attempting to provide an understanding for your readers of the broader significance of the event. Prepare a front-page newspaper report incorporating primary source material, such as contemporary cartoons or excerpts from speeches, to support your report. (P3.2)

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states

19

Source 1.18 A cartoon showing Bismarck ‘taming’ his parliament

5. Sources 1.18, 1.19 and 1.20 provide contemporary judgements of Bismarck’s career. Refer to a range of historians and texts on Bismarck and the unification of German states, for example: W W. J. Mommsen, Imperial Germany 1867–1918, Arnold, London, 1996 W M. Howard, The Lessons of History, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1991 W A. J. P. Taylor, Bismarck, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1985. In groups, summarise the main historical interpretations of Bismarck’s career and his influence on European politics and present your findings to the class. (P3.2–P3.4) Source 1.19 Cartoon from Punch magazine, 20 September 1884, showing Bismarck as a puppeteer and the emperors of Russia, Austria and Germany as puppets

Source 1.20 A caricature of Bismarck giving a view of his political ‘achievements’, among them martial law, bribed journalism, aggression, fake diplomacy and the suppression of free speech

20

Retrospective

Communicating an understanding of history

P4.1, P4.2

6. Organise a class debate on the topic that: ‘Nationalism and liberalism were destructive forces in nineteenth-century European history’. (P4.2) 7. Write an essay on the topic: ‘Bismarck — political opportunist or idealist?’. (P4.1, P4.2)

2

Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

KEY CONCEPTS

Key concepts relevant to this chapter are: W democracy W industrialisation W racism W self-determination KEY DATES

The areas of focus of this case study are: W W W W

The South and states’ rights Slavery and human rights The North and the issue of national unity Results of the Civil War

1787 T Founding Fathers frame Constitution 1820 T Missouri

Compromise is reached 1852

T Anti-slavery

novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin published 1857

T Court

rules in case of slave Dred Scott 1859 December Abolitionist John Brown hanged for treason

T2

1860 December South Carolina secedes from the Union

T 20

1861 T March

Abraham Lincoln becomes president T April American Civil War begins 1863 January Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

T1

Source 2 .1 A photograph of Confederate artillerymen lying dead after the Battle of Antietam in 1862, an example of the relentless destruction wrought by the American Civil War

1865 April Civil War ends 14 April Lincoln assassinated

1877 The Compromise brings Southerners back into the Union

1880s Jim Crow laws enforce segregation

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

21

Introduction

civil war W a war between groups or regions within their own country Yankees W the Civil War term applied by Southerners to any Northerner or member of the Union army Confederates W the popular name of the seven (later eleven) Southern states that seceded (withdrew) from the American Union in 1861

The United States is the most influential nation in the world today. America’s power is expressed through its culture, economy, politics and military strength. Television screens regularly flash images of US troops on missions to the world’s trouble spots. In 1999, nearly 6000 US troops were dispatched by President Clinton, as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force, to reconstruct the war-ravaged and ethnically divided Serbian province of Kosovo. In 2003, the United States led a coalition of forces in an invasion of Iraq and overthrew the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The American presence and power is global. Turn back the clock to the 1800s and America was a very different place. The United States had won independence from Britain in 1783 (see page 2) but nationhood was soon to be torn apart by a bitter and costly civil war. More lives were lost during the American Civil War than in all of America’s other wars combined. The passion and ferocity of the battle between the Yankees of the North and the Confederates of the South provide an insight into the depth of division in American pre-war society.

The South and states’ rights agrarian W relating to rural or agricultural life

Napoleonic Wars W named after the French General Napoleon who made himself dictator in 1799. From 1803, he conquered most of Europe until defeat by the British at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

In the early nineteenth century, America was an agrarian society with a population of just four million. It was a politically isolated land that was of limited interest to most Europeans. However, by the mid nineteenth century, massive immigration to America had increased its population to approximately 23 million. Many Europeans fled there to escape the conflict of their homelands, troubled by revolutions and worn out by the long Napoleonic Wars (see chapter 1, page 4). There were some who saw America as an opportunity to escape persecution and believed in the ‘American dream’ of hard work as the path to success. Yet its distance from Europe could not shield America from change and conflict. The turmoil of nineteenth-century Europe had a parallel in the enormous economic, social and political forces that were shaping the young nation across the Atlantic.

Nineteenth-century America — ‘a house divided’ industrialisation W production of goods using machinery rather than manual labour and the growth of industries rather than agriculture as the basis of the nation’s economy trade union W an organisation of employed workers formed to undertake collective bargaining with employers to achieve improved working conditions

22

Retrospective

During the nineteenth century, America became increasingly divided by economic structure.

The North and West The massive immigration of the nineteenth century brought new industries to America’s North to provide for the booming population. The growth of the cities and industry of the North demanded a modern society based on ‘free labour, free land, free man’. The North and West offered the greatest opportunities to new settlers. In these regions, ever expanding markets and industrialisation brought improved working conditions and the birth of the American trade union movement.

The South Congress W national legislature of the United States, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both groups are elected by popular vote. Cabinet W members of the House of Representatives appointed by the president to decide government policy

In the American states lying south of the Mason–Dixon line (the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland), cotton was ‘king’. These agricultural states produced over 80 per cent of the world’s supply of cotton and large plantations flourished with the wealth that came from high export prices. The South had created an aristocracy of around 8000 wealthy plantation owners. They ran the South, representing their states in Congress and holding Cabinet positions in the national capital, Washington DC. Source 2.2 Map of Civil War America showing Yankee, Confederate and border slave states loyal to the Union

0

500

1000 km

Maine V NH Mass. New York C RI

Minn. Oregon

Wisc. Mich. Iowa

Non-organised territory

Kansas

California

New Jersey Delaware Maryland Virginia

Penn.

Ohio Indiana W Vir. Illinois Kentucky

Missouri

N Carolina

Tennessee Unorganised Arkansas

S Carolina

N

Georgia

Mississippi Alabama Texas

Louisiana

Florida

Union states and territories Border slave states in Union Confederate states Line defining North and South

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Study the map in source 2.2 and describe how the issue of slavery affected America geographically. 2. Consider the territory labelled on the map as ‘non-organised’. Explain: (a) what you think the term ‘non-organised’ suggests about this territory (b) what kind of threat ‘non-organised territory’ could present to the stability of the Union and Confederate states. Few European immigrants went to America’s southern states for work. This was because they found it hard to compete with the slave labour. In the South, the economy was based primarily on cotton and on the slaves — around four million African Americans — whose unpaid labour helped create the huge profits that the plantation owners enjoyed.

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

23

Source 2.3 The English magazine, Punch, portrayed the American Civil War as a gladiatorial contest presided over by a black ‘Caesar’.

SOURCE QUESTION

Punch was a satirical magazine. What does this mean and what does the cartoon convey about English attitudes towards the warring parties in America?

sectionalism W division of a nation into economic and social regions Founding Fathers W delegates appointed to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention and entrusted with the drafting of the American constitution constitution W the rules (usually written) that set out how a state will be organised and the nature and limits of the government’s powers within it Union W formed by the colonies after they adopted the 1776 Declaration of Independence federal W the central government for a union of states tariff W a duty or custom imposed by a government on exports or imports

24

Retrospective

Sectionalism and the South The division of America into different economic and social regions was called sectionalism. Each section of the nation wanted political and economic decisions to favour its particular needs. In 1787, the Founding Fathers had struggled to frame a constitution that was acceptable to the competing sectional groups. By the early nineteenth century: W Northerners wanted the Congress of the United States of America to make available free land for independent farmers W the South wanted slavery extended into the newly settled western states. Whether slavery should be permitted in the west became the most important issue in American politics. In 1818, there were 11 free and 11 slave states in the American Union. In 1820, the territory of Missouri applied to become a part of the Union as a slave state. The free states were concerned that admitting Missouri would give slave states greater representation in the federal government. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was reached when it was agreed that: W Missouri would be admitted as a slave state W Maine was to be admitted as a free state W no further slavery would be accepted north of the Mason–Dixon line. Working for the good of the nation became less possible as sectional interests increasingly dominated American politics. The North wanted tariffs to protect its developing industries. The South argued that tariffs would cause financial hardship by increasing the cost of manufactured goods.

Source 2.4 A photograph of five generations of a family of slaves from a plantation in South Carolina in the mid 1800s

Source 2.5 A statement made in 1858 by Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina

As America expanded to the west and more territories were added to the Union, state suspicions increased and the balance between slave and free states became harder to maintain. In 1849, the conflict was sparked again when the ‘gold rush’ territory of California asked to be admitted as a free state. After bitter debate, another compromise was reached — California was declared free while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were given permission to determine their own slave policies. These agreements were only temporary solutions to sectionalism. In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was challenged when Congress passed the Kansas–Nebraska Bill. The territories of Kansas and Nebraska lay to the north of the Mason–Dixon Line and yet they were given the right to vote as to whether they would follow freedom or slavery. Once again, the issue of slavery defeated attempts at compromise. Northerners were outraged and ‘Bleeding Kansas’ became the rallying cry for both pro- and anti-slavery forces. Extremists on both sides whipped up the tensions so that, by 1856, civil war had broken out in Kansas.

In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life . . . Fortunately, for the South she found a race adapted to the purpose . . . Quoted in G. C. Ward, The Civil War: an Illustrated History, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York, 1990.

SOURCE QUESTION

Using sources 2.4 and 2.5 as your evidence, explain: (a) how the South defended slavery (b) what you think the impact of slavery would have been on the Southern economy.

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

25

Source 2.6 A Yankee propaganda cartoon of 1861 showing the American eagle protecting her nest of states against traitors

Slavery and human rights Dred Scott — person or property? Supreme Court W the highest court to which states could appeal

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What is the message conveyed by the propaganda poster in source 2.6? 2. What would Southerners have thought of the opinions expressed in the poster? emancipate W set free from slavery or from other restraints on a person’s freedom abolitionist W a person who campaigned for the ending of slavery

26

Retrospective

The Kansas–Nebraska Act appeared to many Northerners as a victory for the slave states. In 1857, tensions increased and the debate intensified when a Southern-dominated Supreme Court ruled that Congress had no rights to prohibit slavery in the territories. The Court had ruled in the case of Dred Scott, a slave whose master had kept him for some years in the free states of Illinois and Wisconsin. Dred Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that his residence in free states had made him a free man. Chief Justice Roger Taney, a former slave owner, delivered the Court’s decision that: W slaves were property and so could not become free by moving out of a slave state W slaves were not citizens of the United States and so had no right to sue in a federal court W American laws prohibiting slavery in the territories were unconstitutional.

The abolitionists The Abolition movement aimed to bring an end to the institution of slavery and emancipate the slaves. The morning newspapers of 16 October 1859 reported a raid on a government weapons arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in West Virginia. John Brown, a slavery abolitionist, intended to distribute weapons to runaway slaves who would then establish themselves as a republic of former slaves. The South feared a full-scale slave revolt encouraged by abolitionists like Brown.

Source 2.7 A photograph of the abolitionist, John Brown (1800–1859), whose favourite Biblical passage was Hebrews 9:22: ‘Without shedding of blood there is no remission (of sin)’.

To many in the North, John Brown was a hero in the fight for freedom and the human rights of slaves; in the South, he was regarded as an insane and violent abolitionist. John Brown was captured, tried for treason against the state of Virginia and hanged. After the outbreak of Civil War, the Union army marched to a favourite song: John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in his grave, His soul goes marching on . . .

The story of slavery

SOURCE QUESTION

Using the text, source and information from this book’s website at the John Brown weblinks (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii), write a short news report on John Brown’s activities in 1859, headlined ‘Hero or madman?’. suffrage W the right to vote

Source 2.8 A photograph of the American writer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1817–1895): ‘Without struggle, there is no progress.’

The horror of slavery was also being communicated through the written word. In an 1851 edition of a newspaper called the National Era, a serialised novel about slavery appeared. It was reprinted in book form as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and became one of America’s bestsellers. This powerful story of a ruthless slave owner called Simon Legree and his kindhearted slave, Uncle Tom, was the most effective piece of propaganda in the history of the Abolition movement. In 1845, an inspirational autobiography was published — Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Douglass had been born into slavery in 1818 in Maryland. As an infant he had been taken from his mother, Harriet Bailey, and sold to the Auld family. Sophia Auld broke the law when she taught him some of the letters of the alphabet. Douglass then taught himself how to read and write by observing the men he worked for and the white children of his neighbourhood. In 1838, Douglass escaped slavery by boarding a train and carrying identification papers provided for him by a free African American seaman. He eventually made his way to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he joined abolitionist groups and published newspapers. As a highly recognised abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer, Frederick Douglass became one of the most influential personalities of nineteenth-century American history. In the 1860s, he conferred with Abraham Lincoln and then with President Andrew Johnson on the issue of African American suffrage. In 1872, Douglass was nominated to run for the position of Vice President of the United States. Critics had questioned the authenticity of Douglass’ autobiography, arguing that a black man could never have written such an accomplished piece of literature. The book was a bestseller, reprinted nine times and translated into French and Dutch. With the publication of his autobiography, Douglass was forced to flee America in fear that the Auld family would locate him and take action to have their ‘property’ returned. His freedom was eventually purchased by British supporters who raised the funds to reimburse the Auld family for their financial loss. Frederick Douglass died on 20 February 1895, after returning home from a meeting where he gave an address to the National Council of Women in Washington. The standing ovation the audience gave him that evening recognised a life dedicated to the creation of a more just society. His guiding principle was expressed in the motto of The North Star newspaper that he edited: ‘Right is of no sex — Truth is of no colour — God is the father of us all, and we are all Brethren’. SOURCE QUESTION

Using the text and this source, draw up a table to summarise the examples of (a) the struggles endured and (b) the progress made by Douglass in his life.

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

27

Source 2.9 The status of slaves in the South is made clear in this listing of the property for sale from a deceased estate, as it appeared in the Civil War Times in 1852 SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What general attitude towards slavery is communicated through this list? 2. What characteristics did the highest priced slaves have in common? 3. Explain the impact of a slave’s age on her/his sale price. Source 2.10 One of the earliest surviving portraits of slaves, dated 1850. The scientist, Louis Agassiz, commissioned the series of portraits in his effort to promote his theory that racial differences were evidence of separate species.

SOURCE QUESTION

What impression of the slave is communicated in this photograph? How does this compare with the attitude expressed in source 2.9?

28

Retrospective

Sale of Slaves and Stock. The Negroes and Stock listed below, are a Prime Lot, and belong to the ESTATE OF THE LATE LUTHER McGOWAN, and will be sold on Monday, Sept. 22nd, 1852, at the Fair Grounds, in Savannah, Georgia, at 1:00 P. M. The Negroes will be taken to the grounds two days previous to the Sale, so that they may be inspected by prospective buyers. On account of the low prices listed below, they will be sold for cash only, and must be taken into custody within two hours after sale. No.

Name.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Lunesta Violet Lizzie Minda Adam Abel Tanney Flementina Lanney Sally Maccabey Dorcas Judy Happy Mowden Bills Theopolis Coolidge Bessie Infant Samson Callie May Honey Angelina Virgil Tom Noble Judge Lesh Booster Big Kate Melie Ann Deacon Coming Mabel Uncle Tim Abe Tennes

Age. Remarks. 27 16 30 27 28 41 22 39 34 10 35 25 60 15 21 39 29 69 1 41 27 14 16 21 40 11 55 43 37 19 26 19 47 60 27 29

Prime Rice Planter, Housework and Nursemaid, Rice, Unsound, Cotton, Prime Woman, Cotton, Prime Young Man, Rice Hand, Eyesight Poor, Prime Cotton Hand, Cood Cook, Stiff Knee, Prime Cotton Man, Handy in Kitchen, Prime Man, Fair Carpenter, Seamstress, Handy in House, Blacksmith, Prime Cotton Boy, Handy with Mules, Rice Hand, Gets Fits, Rice Hand and Blacksmith, Infirm, Sews, Strong Likely Boy Prime Man, Good with Stock, Prime Woman, Rice, Prime Girl, Hearing Poor, Prime Girl, House or Field, Prime Field Hand, Rice Hand, Lame Leg, Handy Boy, Prime Blacksmith, Fair Mason, Unsound, Housekeeper and Nurse, Housework, Smart Yellow Girl, Prime Rice Hand, Prime Cotton Hand, Prime Cotton Hand, Fair Hand with Mules, Prime Cotton Hand, Prime Rice Hand and Coachman,

Price. $1,275.00 900.00 300.00 1,200.00 1,100.00 675.00 950.00 400.00 1,000.00 675.00 980.00 800.00 575.00 700.00 900.00 575.00 1,275.00 250.00 400.00 975.00 1,000.00 850.00 1,000.00 1,100.00 750.00 900.00 800.00 600.00 950.00 1,250.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 800.00 600.00 1,000.00 1,250.00

There will also be offered at this sale, twenty head of Horses and Mules with harness, along with thirty head of Prime Cattle. Slaves will be sold separate, or in lots, as best suits the purchaser. Sale will be held rain or shine.

The North and the issue of national unity Fighting for the Union Republican W one of the United States’ two main political parties, formed to support protective tariffs and industrial expansion Democrat W the other main political party in the United States, formed by Thomas Jefferson in 1792 to defend the rights of the individual states against a central, federal government

Source 2.11 Photograph of Abraham Lincoln, 1865

The issue of slavery dominated the presidential campaign of 1860. The American people were divided on sectional lines: W the supporters of the Republican Party stood united against any extension of slavery W the Democrat Party had broken into pro- and anti-slavery factions. The Republican candidate was a tall, thin, slow-speaking lawyer who had been born in a log cabin in Kentucky. His name was Abraham Lincoln and, in March 1861, he was inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States of America. Prior to his election, in his speech for nomination as the Republican candidate, Lincoln had argued that sectionalism threatened the very existence of the Union. He declared that America would not survive while it continued to be divided: ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free’. The main issue of the campaign was the extension of slavery into the territories. The Southern politicians warned that their states would leave the Union if Lincoln became their president. Source 2.12 The Union general George McClellan is portrayed as the voice of compromise (‘The Union must be preserved at all hazards!’) in this contemporary cartoon from the Civil War Times. He is trying to stop Lincoln on the left (‘No peace without Abolition!’) and Jefferson Davis of the Southern Democrats (‘No peace without Separation!’) from tearing the nation in two.

SOURCE QUESTION

Frederick Douglass claimed that Abraham Lincoln was ‘the first great man that I talked with in the United States freely who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of colour’. Why were the Southern states opposed to Lincoln?

SOURCE QUESTION

What does the cartoon in source 2.12 depict as the points on which there was no room for compromise between North and South?

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

29

Secession and formation of the Confederate states secession W withdrawal from an alliance or association, in this case from the American Union

inauguration W the ceremony for inducting a president into office

Source 2.13 Patriotic posters such as this one were used to recruit young soldiers.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Which side in the Civil War is calling for young volunteers in the poster in source 2.13? 2. What reasons are given and how is language used to encourage boys to volunteer?

30

Retrospective

Lincoln’s election was seen as a disaster in the South because it brought to an end Southern domination of the federal government. On 20 December 1860, South Carolina broke away from the Union. This was called secession and it was a catastrophe for America. By February, six of the cotton states had followed and set up a new nation, the Confederate States of America. An aristocratic leader of the Southern Democrats, Jefferson Davis, was elected president. The Confederate States issued their own money, raised their own flag and collected their own taxes. Southerners had been using the threat of secession for many years. They declared that it was the only way to defend their way of life. The Confederate States of America claimed the right to secede and to: W maintain their independence W maintain their state rights, in particular the right to determine state laws on slavery. Before Lincoln’s inauguration, the Confederate States had taken control of most of the United States’ military forts in the south. The commander of Fort Sumter, in South Carolina, refused to surrender to the Confederates. The Confederate government ordered an artillery barrage on Fort Sumter. On 13 April 1861, Fort Sumter surrendered. Two days later, President Lincoln called for army volunteers and ordered the navy to blockade Southern ports. The Civil War had begun. The war lasted over four years and was devastating for America in terms of human lives and property lost. One-quarter of the soldiers who saw combat did not survive.

Source 2.14 Boys in their early teens often lied about their age so that they could join the war effort. These photographs show: (a) a young drummer boy, one of the 180 000 African Americans who joined up to help the Union cause; (b) Confederate Sergeant Powell, one of the young soldiers who marched off to battle.

(a)

(b)

SOURCE QUESTION

What do these photographs reveal about the reality of the Civil War for American society?

Source 2.15 Extracts from a letter written by Major Sullivan Ballou to his wife on 14 July 1861. Major Ballou died at the First Battle of Bull Run.

Camp Clark, Washington 14 July 1861 My very dear Sarah The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days — perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more . . . I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing — perfectly willing — to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . . Quoted in G. C. Ward, The Civil War: an Illustrated History, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1990, p. 82.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What does source 2.15 reveal about this person’s attitude to the war? 2. The writer refers to the ‘Revolution’. What was this revolution? (Refer back to the beginning of this chapter.) 3. Explain what you think the ‘debt’ of the Civil War generation was to ‘those who went before us’ and fought in the revolution. 4. In what ways does source 2.15 help you to understand the nature of the American Civil War?

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

31

The angel of the battlefield Source 2.16 Clara Barton, the ‘angel of the battlefield’, became the most decorated woman in America. She was awarded the Iron Cross, the Cross of Imperial Russia, and the International Red Cross Medal.

SOURCE QUESTION

Draw a mind map to show the main roles and actions of Clara Barton that led to her being called a ‘true heroine of the age’.

In his memoirs of the Civil War years, the Union Surgeon General (Chief Medical Officer of the Union) remarked that the quality of medical treatment provided for the wounded came from ‘the middle ages’. Physicians had no real understanding of what caused disease, how to halt infection or how to relieve pain. During the Virginia Campaign, an average of two thousand men every day required treatment for serious injury. During the Battle of the Wilderness, Union surgeons amputated limbs for four days and two nights, around the clock, using instruments and bandages that were bloodstained and not disinfected. The dead were buried only yards away from where makeshift hospitals tended the wounded. Upon hearing of the conditions the wounded were forced to endure, Clara Barton resigned from her position as a government clerk in Washington. In 1861, she established an agency to gather and distribute medical supplies and then, in 1862, travelled to the battlefront to provide nursing for the gravely wounded and dying. In 1864, she was appointed ‘lady in charge’ of the hospitals at the front. The following year, Abraham Lincoln put her in charge of the search for the Union’s missing men. She established the fate of over 30 000 men and was then sent to identify and mark the graves of the thousands of Union soldiers lost in Georgia. Clara Barton then launched a nationwide campaign to trace all soldiers lost during the civil war and, with Frederick Douglass, began campaigning for civil rights for women and African Americans. In the decade after the civil war Clara Barton became involved with the work of the International Red Cross and inaugurated a movement to establish the Red Cross in America. In 1881, she succeeded in having the American Branch founded and secured the backing of John D. Rockefeller to create the headquarters one block away from the White House. Clara Barton continued her work as a nurse and activist until she was in her eighties. Upon her death in 1912, aged 90, she was eulogised as ‘the true heroine of the age, the angel of the battlefield’.

Defending democracy democracy W government by elected representatives of the people

32

Retrospective

For Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War was a fight to defend a way of life. The issue of national unity was central to the survival of American democracy — ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people . . .’. Lincoln believed that American democracy would fail if states believed they had the right to withdraw from the Union. In his inauguration speech, Lincoln had stressed his commitment to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the constitution and the laws of the Union. He had warned he would enter Confederate territory to defend the property and places rightfully belonging to the federal government. To preserve the Union, Lincoln was prepared to make concessions to the Confederates. For example, he had: W assured Southerners he would not interfere with slavery in states where it already existed, although he was determined it should extend no further W agreed that the hated Fugitive Slave Laws, which denied African Americans any legal protection against slavery, could still be rigidly enforced. On one point there was no compromise: Abraham Lincoln would not agree to recognise the Confederacy as an independent nation.

Source 2.17 Abraham Lincoln proudly stands beside Liberty in this Yankee postwar print.

SOURCE QUESTION

The illustration in source 2.17 was entitled ‘Outbreak of the Rebellion of the United States 1861’. What is the interpretation of the events of the war as depicted in this poster? (You will need to closely analyse the images and research some of the key personalities portrayed.) Source 2.18 Gettysburg was the decisive battle that ended Southern hopes of victory. At the cemetery, on the battlefield of Gettysburg, Lincoln made a short speech on 19 November 1863 expressing his belief in freedom, democracy and the significance of the Union.

‘Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can survive. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final restingplace for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth in freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’ Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, quoted in D. C. Somervell, A History of the United States to 1941, 2nd ed., William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1955, p. 183.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What does Lincoln say were the basic principles of American nationhood brought forth ‘fourscore and seven years ago’? 2. For what does he believe the lives had been lost? 3. What is the ‘great task’ of the future generations? 4. The Gettysburg address is widely regarded as the greatest American speech. Why do you think it has taken on such significance for later generations?

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

33

Results of the Civil War Reconciliation

Source 2.19 Timeline of the main events of the American Civil War

On 4 March 1865, Abraham Lincoln made his second inaugural speech as President. With an end to the Civil War drawing near, he expressed the need for reconciliation: ‘With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds . . .’ . One month later, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to the Yankee forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant. On 9 April 1865, the war between the Yankees and Confederates effectively came to an end at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Lee’s men were sent home on parole with their horses and officers’ side arms. All other equipment was surrendered. The war had cost over 625 000 Americans lives and an estimated US$20 billion.

1861

February April June July

Lincoln’s predecessor, President Buchanan, refuses to surrender Southern federal forts to seceding states. Confederate troops seize the forts. Fort Sumter, South Carolina, held as federal property by Union troops. Civil War begins when Confederate troops open fire on Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter surrenders to South Carolina. Four slave states, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, declare loyalty to the Union. Confederate army, led by Stonewall Jackson, victorious against Union at the First Battle of Bull Run.

1862

February Union General Ulysses S. Grant captures strategically located forts, Henry and Donelson, in Tennessee. August At the Second Battle of Bull Run, General Robert E. Lee’s troops force Union army to fall back to Washington DC. September Lee’s advance of Confederate forces is halted. Confederates withdraw to Virginia. 1863

January

Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves are free in the eyes of the federal government. May Union General Hooker attacks General Lee’s forces at Rappahanock River. Lee’s counterattack almost completely defeats Hooker’s forces but also inflicts heavy Confederate casualties. June–July General Lee decides to take the war to the enemy and breaks through Union lines. General George Meade commands Union forces and repels the Confederates at Gettysburg. Confederate forces are cut in two. 1864

September General William T. Sherman commands Union troops in capturing the city of Atlanta, Georgia. November Sherman’s army of 60 000 uses policy of total destruction in Georgia to break the spirit of the South. 1865

January February April May

Severe food shortages in the South lead to large numbers of troops deserting General Lee’s forces. General Sherman moves from Georgia through North Carolina, destroying everything in his path. General Lee evacuates Confederate capital, Richmond. General Lee agrees to terms of surrender to Union forces. Last Confederate commanders surrender to the Union. SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. From the timeline, identify what you believe were turning points in the Civil War. 2. Explain what happened in 1865 and suggest reasons for the military action taken by General Sherman. 3. What was the final outcome of the Civil War and what were the implications for the South?

34

Retrospective

At war’s end, Lincoln wanted to see the Confederate armies quickly disbanded and the men returned to their farms and homes. With the United States re-established, the massive task of reconstruction and reconciliation had to begin. Nearly all of the fighting had been done on Southern soil. Lincoln realised that rebuilding the South would require enormous social, political and economic readjustment. Lincoln did not live to activate his plan to bring the south back quickly into the Union. On 14 April 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by an actor, John Wilkes Booth, at a theatre in Washington DC. Lincoln’s vice-president, Andrew Johnson, became president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln had preserved the Union and freed the slaves. During the course of the war, the Union forces had faced a shortage of soldiers and so Lincoln had issued a proclamation which had abolished slavery. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1 January 1863 declared that slaves in the Confederate states were free and could become members of the Union army. About 180 000 African Americans fought with the Union forces; 38 000 of them died during the war. Source 2.20 A photograph of the Provost Guard of the 107th coloured Infantry. Despite being less than 1 per cent of the North’s population, African Americans totalled one tenth of the North’s army by the end of the war. SOURCE QUESTION

Frederick Douglass campaigned tirelessly for African American recruitment. He believed ‘the negro is the key . . . the pivot on which the whole rebellion turns . . . this war . . . is nothing more or less than perpetual slavery against universal freedom’. Why do you think African Americans enlisted for the North in such astonishing numbers and how is their attitude to the conflict expressed in this photo? Source 2.21 As part of the presidential campaign of 1864, Lincoln pledged to amend the constitution and make slavery illegal. In January 1865, the 13th Amendment was passed, followed by guarantees of citizenship in 1868. SOURCE QUESTION

Explain why Articles XIII and XIV were of such significance to African Americans in the South.

Article XIII (1865) [Slavery prohibited] Sect. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Sect. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Article XIV (1868) [Definition of citizenship] Sect. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

35

Source 2.22 A poster representing the rise of African Americans ‘from the plantation to the Senate’. (Participation for African Americans in politics ended with the Jim Crow laws; see page 37.)

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What image of post-war America is portrayed in the poster in source 2.22? 2. In what ways were African Americans challenging the old order and why do you think they met such strong opposition?

36

Retrospective

Reconstruction and retribution The Civil War determined that no state could secede from the Union and that slavery was illegal. The relationship of the states to one federal government, and the place of former slaves within the Union, were issues not finally decided by war. The economic situation for the majority of African Americans meant that most remained in a situation little different from slavery. As part of reconstruction, the government set up the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1865. The aim of the Bureau was to help thousands of newly freed African Americans, white Unionists and refugees to adjust to life after war. It provided legal aid for those in trouble, food and clothing for those in need, money for education and health and job opportunities for the unemployed. The Bureau was a brave attempt to heal the wounds of war. It remains a rare example of cooperation and vision during the period of reconstruction. The cultural gulf between North and South remained after the war. Opinion in the North was divided on how the Confederate states should be treated. President Johnson favoured Lincoln’s reconciliation while hardliners in his government urged revenge and repression. The work of reconstruction proceeded slowly as states were only gradually readmitted to the Union. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868 placed the South under military rule until new constitutions were drawn up. A group known as the Radical Republicans dominated Congress and put forward their policy of treating the South as a conquered province. Two outspoken abolitionists, Charles Sumner and Thadeus Stevens, led the Radical Republicans. They believed in punishing the Confederates for attempting to destroy the Union. The Southern states were forced to adopt the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the constitution. The Amendments gave African Americans their citizenship and the right to vote. With citizenship came a chance for African Americans to play a role in American politics (see source 2.22). Between 1868 and 1877, there were 16 African Americans elected to the House of Representatives and two to the Senate. The Civil War had destroyed the South’s cities, the way of life and its major economic asset — slavery.

The Klan and the Carpetbaggers racist W describes the attitudes that people of a different race/colour are inferior to those of one’s own colour

segregation W the policy of separating racial groups in all aspects of their lives so as to ensure that whites maintained supremacy over African Americans Jim Crow laws W state laws of the 1880s aimed at enforcing segregation between whites and blacks

Military control, the overthrow of the state governments and the granting of the vote to slaves were issues that kept alive the bitterness of the war years. To overcome Yankee control, Southern whites resorted to breaking the law. A racist and terrorist organisation known as the Ku Klux Klan, or the ‘Knights of the White Camellia’, was set up to keep African Americans ‘in their place’. The Klan spread quickly through the South, working towards the restoration of the old Southern way of life and its slave and master relationships. The triumph of the American emancipation of the slaves was short lived. As power returned to the states of the South, a series of laws followed that were designed to restrict the right to vote. African Americans lost their vote through discriminatory reading and writing tests or the need to have property and wealth to qualify for the franchise. Many of the new Southern governments took steps to prevent African Americans from acquiring real property and education. With their rights dwindling, they were powerless to prevent laws enforcing strict segregation in schools and places to live or work. This legislation was known as the Jim Crow laws. Governments gave back huge Southern farms to white plantation owners and so many former slaves returned to work the fields of the rich, just as they had before the Civil War.

Source 2.23 Equality and opportunity remained a distant dream for African Americans after the Civil War.

SOURCE QUESTION

Imagine you are one of the people in the late nineteenthcentury photograph in source 2.23. What comments would you make about the Civil War and the reconstruction experience for yourself and African Americans in general? Most Southerners expressed their anger at what reconstruction had done to them by solidly supporting the Democratic party. Stories of government corruption and the activities of ‘Carpetbaggers’ and ‘Scalawags’ increased the sense of alienation from the politics of the North. Carpetbaggers were Yankees who had moved south to make quick money from the chaos of reconstruction. The Scalawags were Southerners who used political power to plunder the treasuries of their state governments. The Radical Republicans had set out to establish racial equality and strong Republican government in the reconstructed South. They failed in both objectives.

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

37

Reunion and recovery In 1865, Americans were sickened by the war. The wounds caused by anger, suspicion and sectionalism were hard to heal. Putting the Union back together and replacing slavery with freedom took more than one generation to achieve. A compromise was agreed between Yankees and Confederates twelve years after General Lee’s surrender. The Compromise of 1877 brought embittered Southerners into the Union again through assurances that federal government funds would be made available for construction programs, and the military presence would finally be removed from all Southern governments. Republicans retained the presidency of the United States, but Democrats took power in the South. African Americans were left somewhere between slavery and citizenship. The Civil War was a turning point in American history. It stimulated the growth of industries, such as flour milling and the manufacture of shoes and cloth. Building of the first of the great American train lines also began during the war and was completed in 1869. During the Civil War, Congress authorised a free postal service and invested money in the development of American industry to obtain war materials. The South suffered in the postwar decades but the industrial North was set to transform American life. The nation was expanding westwards and the cities were rapidly growing. Great economic forces were forging the United States of America into an industrial giant.

Meeting objectives and outcomes Key features, issues, individuals and events

P1.1, P1.2

1. Conduct further research into the roles of individuals involved in the events leading to the American Civil War, for example: President Andrew Johnson, Senator Charles Sumner, John C. Calhoun, Senator Stephen Douglas, Frederick Douglass. Evaluate their position on issues related to separatism and the forces that motivated them. (P1.1) 2. Consider the events of 1820 and the compromise that was reached. Assess whether the compromise helped alleviate sectional differences or deepened them. (P1.2) 3. The New York political leader, William H. Seward, declared in 1858 that the issue of slavery would bring the nation into an ‘irrepressible conflict’. Assess the issue of slavery and whether civil war was inevitable. Consider whether a permanent compromise would have been possible. Give reasons for your answers. (P1.2) 4. The American Civil War could be described as the first industrial war and the first ‘total war’ in history. In small groups, research and prepare a PowerPoint presentation on one of the main battles and events of the war: the First Battle at Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the capture of Vicksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbour, General Sherman’s March to the Sea and General Grant’s surrender at Appomattox. Allocate individual research topics covering all of the main events. Outline what occurred, why it occurred and what the impact was on civilians and soldiers. Share your group’s presentation with the class. (P1.1)

38

Retrospective

Change and continuity over time

P2.1

5. Between 1850 and 1900, what changes took place in the lives of African Americans? Research the different experiences for people living in the Southern states and Northern states. Hold a class debate on the topic: ‘The Civil War emancipated African Americans’. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry

P3.1–P3.5

6. Consider source 2.24 which is an extract from the constitution of the Ku Klux Klan. Consider the history of the Klan. What contradictions can you find in its constitution and how can you explain them? (P3.3, P3.4) Source 2.24 Extract from the constitution of the Ku Klux Klan

Creed We, the Order of the [Ku Klux Klan], reverentially acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of the Divine Being, and recognize the goodness and providence of the same. And we recognize our relation to the United States Government, the supremacy of the Constitution, the Constitutional Laws thereof, and the Union of States thereunder. Character and objects of the Order This is an institution of Chivalry, Humanity, Mercy, and Patriotism; embodying in its genius and its principles all that is chivalric in conduct, noble in sentiment, generous in manhood, and patriotic in purpose; its peculiar objects being First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless, from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers. Second: To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the States and the people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever. Third: To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial except by their peers in conformity to the laws of the land. Extract quoted in Henry Steele Commager (ed.), Documents of American History, Vol. II, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1958, pp. 49–50.

Communicating an understanding of history

P4.1 and P4.2

7. Consider the following terms and concepts and evaluate their importance in explaining the causes and results of the American Civil War: democracy, sectionalism, urbanisation, diversity, abolition, segregation, trade unionism, liberty, equality. (P4.1) 8. You are an African American elected to serve in the US Congress in 1885. Write a speech to be presented to Congress where you express your opinion about the restrictions being imposed on your people by the Southern state governments. (P4.2)

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century

39

9. A Union soldier commented about the wreckage that followed General Sherman’s March to the Sea: ‘We have utterly destroyed Atlanta … I don’t think any people will want to try and live there now.’ Write an essay on the topic: ‘The Civil War — a watershed in American history or a senseless waste of life and resources?’ (P4.1, P4.2) Source 2.25 A photograph of the ruins of Richmond, Virginia in April 1865

10. Divide into groups and allocate each group to research one of the following events or situations. When you feel your group has developed a good understanding of the material, communicate your ideas through a lecturette, PowerPoint presentation, debate or roleplay. (P3.1–P3.5, P4.2) W Dred Scott’s case as presented to Chief Justice Taney’s court W John Brown’s proposal to free the Southern slaves W The events that caused Kansas to become known as ‘Bleeding Kansas’ W Lincoln’s decision to put forward the Emancipation Proclamation W The dispute between the Radical Republicans and the President on reconstruction of the South W The reconstruction role of the Freedmen’s Bureau and its success in assisting millions of newly emancipated people W The Georgian state’s 1867 vote to expel all African American members of government W The establishing of the ‘Black Codes’ in the South as a means of controlling African Americans’ rights and labour W Former slaves, Frederick Douglass or Sojourner Truth, publicising their message of abolition

40

Retrospective

3

The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

KEY CONCEPTS

Key concepts relevant to this chapter are: W autocracy W communism W democracy W industrialisation W liberalism W nationalism W revolution KEY DATES

The areas of focus of this case study are: W W

W W

Nicholas II as autocrat Political, social and economic grievances in early twentieth-century Russia The Tsar’s failure to address the problems of Russia The role of World War I in the fall of the tsarist regime

1894 T Nicholas

II becomes Tsar

1905 T 9 January Bloody Sunday massacre begins months of revolutionary antigovernment protests T 17 October Nicholas II announces October Manifesto and reforms that help him retain power 1906 T July

First Duma begins

1907 T 3 June Stolypin changes electoral law in favour of landowners and businessmen 1912 T Soldiers

kill striking miners at Lena goldfields 1914

T Russia’s

entry into World War I encourages patriotic support of the Tsar 1915

T Nicholas

II assumes personal command of Russian troops and leaves Tsarina to control government

Source 3 .1 Photograph c. 1905 showing Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, their daughters (from left to right, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Olga) and baby son, Alexei

1916 December Murder of Rasputin

1917 February Revolution overturns Tsar’s authority 2 March Nicholas II abdicates Provisional Government formed October Bolshevik Party seizes power in the name of the soviets

1918 17 July Nicholas and his family disappear

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

41

Introduction Red Army W The army formed by Russia’s Bolshevik party in January 1918 to protect the gains of the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution that had brought it to government.

This chapter uses Russia’s Julian calendar for dates until February 1918. In the twentieth century, this calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar used throughout the western world and used in Russia from February 1918. Bolsheviks W Members of the Bolshevik party which created the revolution of October 1917 that brought it to power. An earlier revolution in February 1917 had resulted in the Tsar’s loss of power.

Source 3.2 A photograph showing Nicholas Romanov and his family in captivity following his loss of power in February–March 1917

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What do sources 3.1 and 3.2 indicate about how the lives of Tsar Nicholas II and his family changed from 1905 to 1918? 2. What questions would you ask to gain a better understanding of why the family’s circumstances changed during this period?

42

Retrospective

In May 1918, Red Army guards imprisoned the Russian royal family at Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children lived in what their captors called the ‘House of Special Purpose’. The windows of the house were painted white. Guards and barricades surrounded the property. Rescue and escape were virtually impossible. On 17 July 1918, the family disappeared. Many people believed that the soldiers had executed them. Officials, representatives of foreign governments, journalists, amateur detectives and the general public investigated, discussed, debated and speculated on the ultimate fate of the Romanovs for much of the twentieth century. The family was last definitely seen alive on 16 July 1918. Judge Ivan Sergeyev, conducted the first investigation into the disappearance in late 1918. He concluded that the Tsar, the family doctor and some servants had been murdered in the ‘House of Special Purpose’. Another investigator, Nicolai Sokolov, reported a few weeks later that the Bolsheviks shot the whole family, the family doctor and the family’s remaining servants. Neither investigation found any bodies to support its findings. From the 1920s onwards, people came forward claiming to be one or other of the Tsar’s children. The most famous of these, Anna Anderson, fought a number of court cases to try and prove that she was the youngest daughter, Anastasia. DNA testing has now proved this claim to be false.

Nicholas II as autocrat Nicholas becomes Tsar

industrialisation W production of goods using machinery rather than manual labour and the growth of industries rather than agriculture as the basis of the nation’s economy autocracy W a form of government in which the ruler is unwilling to share her/his political power or have any limits placed on it

When Nicholas Romanov became Tsar (Emperor) of Russia in 1894, there was no hint of the fate that awaited him in 1918. Romanovs had ruled Russia since 1613. Many among the huge crowds that lined the streets for his coronation celebrations saw him as their ‘little father’. Officially, Nicholas was ‘Tsar of all the Russias’ and Grand Duke of both Poland and Finland. He ruled an empire covering about one-sixth of the Earth’s land area. His empire was at peace, was in the early stages of industrialisation and ranked among the world’s great powers. Nicholas II believed that God had appointed him to rule and that it was his duty to continue the autocracy that he had inherited. Source 3.3 L. Tuxen’s painting of the coronation of Nicholas II on 14 May 1896 at the Upensky Cathedral of Moscow’s Kremlin

SOURCE QUESTION

What impression of Nicholas II and his court do you think the artist wanted to create in source 3.3?

Nicholas the autocrat

anti-Semitism W an attitude of prejudice against Jews

Nicholas II was a conservative leader with few of the skills needed to effectively rule 132 million people. His education had encouraged him to: W believe that it was his right to have unlimited control over the Russian people W support anti-Semitism or hostility towards Jews W be pro-military in outlook.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

43

autocrat W a ruler who is unwilling to share his power or have any limits placed on it

absolute power W the complete power to make laws, overrule laws, and appoint or dismiss ministers and advisers, at will.

Source 3.4 Nicholas II’s response to an 1895 request from one of the zemstvos (local provincial governments) for its members to become more involved in Russia’s government

Nicholas II was politically naive and accepted the advice he wanted to hear rather than that of people who tried to guide him to do what was politically sound and achievable. He ruled Russia as an autocrat and expected his subjects to give him unquestioning obedience. Government propaganda and the teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church encouraged his people to love and respect their Tsar and look on him as the ‘little father’ who could rule them severely in the interests of Russia. The Church supported the use of repression to stamp out ‘human weaknesses’ that could undermine Russia’s power. As an autocrat, Nicholas II ruled a police state. The secret police, the Okhrana, responded brutally to anyone who dared to question his authority. Military commanders could order Russia’s one million soldiers to any part of the empire to put down revolts. The government imposed strict censorship of the press. Police spies reported any unfavourable comments made at public meetings. Critics, protesters and would-be revolutionaries risked death, prison and exile for any activities they organised against the government. Tsar Nicholas had absolute power. He declared the law and could overrule any existing law. Political parties were illegal until 1905. There was no parliament until 1906 and even then the Tsar did everything he could to deprive it of real power. Russia did not have a constitution to limit the Tsar’s power or control the methods for choosing ministers. Nicholas II was free to appoint and dismiss his advisers without giving reasons. Each of the Tsar’s ministers was individually responsible to him. They rarely met as a group to discuss policies. Nicholas could decide the extent to which a particular law could be imposed — thus rewarding some and destroying others. Government officials put his decisions into practice and collected taxes for him.

I am informed that recently in some zemstvo assemblies, voices have made themselves heard from people carried away by senseless dreams about participation by members of the zemstvo in the affairs of internal government; let all know that I, devoting all my strength to the welfare of the people, will uphold the principle of autocracy as firmly and as unflinchingly as my late unforgettable father. Tsar Nicholas II, quoted in J. Traynor, Europe 1890–1990, Macmillan, UK, 1991, p. 70.

SOURCE QUESTION

What information do sources 3.3 and 3.4 provide about Nicholas’s power?

Political, social and economic grievances in early twentieth-century Russia In 1900, the Russian empire comprised 23 different nationalities, many of which resented Russian rule. Russians made up 40 per cent of the empire’s 132 million people. Seventy-seven per cent of the population were peasants; 10 per cent belonged to the middle class, 1 per cent to the nobility. The remaining 12 per cent included priests, urban workers, officials, Cossacks and foreigners. Only about 1.5 per cent of the total belonged to the world outside agriculture — compared with 12 per cent in the United States.

44

Retrospective

Source 3.5 An early twentieth-century cartoon depicting Russia’s social structure and the roles of the various groups within it. It was published in Switzerland by the ‘Union of Russian Socialists’.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Explain how each level of the cartoon in source 3.5 provides criticism of the Tsar’s government. Why wasn’t it published in Russia? 2. Use source 3.5 and re-read the paragraph at the foot of page 44, to create a mind map of potential problems Nicholas II might have to deal with as a result of: (a) Russia’s many different nationalities (b) the large number of people involved in agriculture (c) Russia’s social system.

liberals W supporters of liberalism, a view that supported individuals’ rights and freedoms, a system of parliamentary democracy and a free enterprise economy democracy W government by elected representatives of the people socialism W a doctrine promoting the people’s ownership of a nation’s resources and the redistribution of its wealth revolution W period of rapid, extensive change in political and social structures, including a change in sovereignty terrorism W the use of violence to gain political change

1. The royal family (‘We rule you.’) 2. The Court (‘We govern you.’) 3. The Church (‘We mislead you.’) 4. The army (‘We shoot you.’) 5. The capitalists (‘We do the eating.’) 6. The workers (‘We work for you. We feed you.’)

1

2

3

4

5

6

Every social class had grievances against the government. Discontent became organised through illegal political parties and other groups, each with its own illegal newspaper. For example: W Middle and upper class liberals supported the Union of Liberation. They wanted Russia to become a democracy with a constitution and a parliament to limit the Tsar’s powers. W Socialist intellectuals, influenced by the teachings of the German philosopher, Karl Marx, formed the Social Democratic Party (later to split into the Bolshevik and Menshevik parties). They believed in socialism and thought that revolution was the only way of ending tsarist rule. They sought support from urban workers. W The Socialist Revolutionary Party also aimed to overthrow tsarist rule. Its goal was to achieve land redistribution in favour of its mainly peasant supporters. It used terrorism as one of its methods and was responsible for the assassination of hundreds of political figures. In the early 1900s, Russia was on the brink of crisis. Failed harvests, inflation and economic depression saw Russia’s peasants and urban workers increasingly resort to riots, demonstrations and strikes to protest their poor conditions. Russia’s people demanded the redress of numerous political, social and economic problems. Tsar Nicholas II persisted in the belief that to grant reforms would undermine his autocratic power.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

45

Source 3.6 Cartoon entitled ‘Engrossed in Reading’, by Homunculus, from Pulemet (Machine-Gun), No. 2, 1905. The Russian letters ‘CP’ shown on the rats signify ‘SR’ the shortened form for ‘Socialist Revolutionary’. SOURCE QUESTIONS

Use source 3.6 and its caption to answer the following questions. 1. Who are the rats and what are they doing? 2. Who is sitting in the chair and what is he doing? 3. What is going on behind him? 4. What is the attitude of the cartoonist and what is his message? emancipation W the 1861 decree from Tsar Alexander II announcing that Russia’s peasants would be granted their freedom from ownership and some land to assist them in their new lives commune W the main system for organising farming between 1861 and 1905. Each Russian commune owned the land its peasants worked and its village council organised the farming tasks.

Source 3.7 Photograph showing peasants’ living conditions in early twentieth-century Russia

SOURCE QUESTION

Identify the information that the photograph in source 3.7 provides about the hardships the peasants endured.

46

Retrospective

Peasant poverty was a long-standing problem. Russian peasants gained their emancipation in 1861 in the form of a decree from Tsar Alexander II. They then received pay for their work and were freed from ownership. However, there were significant limits to their freedom. They paid compensation (known as redemption payments) for the land they had been ‘given’ and they needed permission from the commune if they wanted to leave the village. The land was owned and paid for by the village community, not the individual, so ex-peasants still had to send back regular payments to offset the communal debt. Peasants continued to use old-fashioned farming methods, involving manual rather than machine labour. Living standards were poor with a whole family often sharing a single room.

Industrialisation helps the organisation of discontent urbanisation W the growth of cities as people move to them to find work outside the rural environment

bureaucracy W officials appointed to put political decisions into practice

From 1880 onwards, the Russian government encouraged industrial growth. Many peasants began to leave the countryside in the hope of a better life in towns and cities. In Russia’s capital, St Petersburg, this urbanisation saw the population increase by 55 per cent between 1881 and 1900. Cities and towns grew rapidly and concentrated within them large numbers of an increasingly rebellious working class. By 1900, Russia had about 2 500 000 urban workers. They lived in unhygienic and overcrowded factory dormitories where the two-shift system often meant that two workers shared rights to a bunk bed. In smaller factories, families lived next to their workbenches. Others had rooms in poorly built, cramped and unsanitary housing. Less than half those who lived in houses had running water or sewerage systems. They worked a 12-hour day for poor wages and had no trade unions to fight for them, as these were illegal. Some laws encouraged worker protection but the provision of it depended mainly on the goodwill of the individual employer. Revolutionary activists from (illegal) parties such as the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries had a willing audience. Workers increasingly went on strike to demand improved working and living conditions. The Russian nobility comprised just over 1 per cent of the population and controlled 25 per cent of Russia’s land. By the early twentieth century, the nobility’s poor economic management had led to a decline in its landholdings. Nobles increasingly relied on government salaries to maintain their extravagant lifestyles. Many nobles served as officials in Russia’s bureaucracy and abused their positions by taking bribes and misappropriating government funds. The nobility generally spent more than it earned and blamed the government for its declining wealth and influence. Russia’s middle class was small and divided. Intellectuals looked down on those who controlled trade and industry. The middle class and Russia’s educated aristocracy criticised the Tsar’s system of government and resented the limits placed on their freedom of expression and on their involvement in the decision-making process.

War against Japan The decision to go to war against Japan in February 1904 highlighted the government’s weaknesses. The war degenerated into a series of Russian military blunders that demonstrated the inefficiency of the Russian army and navy. In October 1904, the Russian navy left the Baltic area to assist in the protection of Port Arthur in Manchuria. Japan’s ally, Britain, refused to allow the Russian navy through the Suez Canal. By the time the navy had sailed virtually around the world to reach Port Arthur, the battle had been lost. The war ended with the humiliation of Russian defeat in August 1905. It was the first victory of an Asian power over a European power. Evidence of Russia’s military weakness increased the people’s discontent and demands for reform.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

47

Bloody Sunday begins the revolution of 1905 In 1905, the image of the Tsar as the ‘little father’ gave way to a view of him as ‘Bloody Nicholas’. On 9 January, in St Petersburg, a procession of peasants and workers came to respectfully present a petition to the Tsar outlining the problems they hoped he could resolve. The Tsar’s soldiers, ordered not to allow the procession to continue, fired on the protesters when they refused to go home. It ended as a bloodbath, with up to 1000 deaths and many more casualties. The day went down in history as Bloody Sunday. It began the revolution of 1905. Source 3.8 A photograph showing part of the procession of peasants in St Petersburg on 9 January 1905

Source 3.9 Extract from the report of Sir Charles Hardinge, the British ambassador in St Petersburg, on the events of 9 January 1905

Every effort has been made to obliterate . . . the incidents on Sunday . . . masons have been busy in removing the shot-marks on . . . the houses in Nevsky Prospect . . . the dead have been secretly buried at night . . . What could not fail to strike a disinterested onlooker . . . was . . . the absence of any Government at all, events being allowed to drift without any co-operation between . . . the Ministry of the Interior . . . the police . . . and the military authorities . . . The Government were well aware of the demands of the strikers and of their intention to assemble . . . to present their grievances to the Emperor . . . no police nor military measures were taken to prevent the massing of the strikers during Sunday morning in the near vicinity of the Winter Palace. It was only at about 1 o’clock . . . that some companies of the Pavlovsky Regiment closed the furthest extremity of the Troitzka Bridge over the Neva, which is exactly opposite to His Majesty’s Embassy, and as a crowd gradually collected and refused to disperse, the troops fired volleys into them, killing and wounding a considerable number . . . It was there that the first blood was shed.

48

Retrospective

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What information on Bloody Sunday does the photograph (source 3.8) provide? 2. What does the British ambassador’s report (source 3.9) indicate about the attitudes of: (a) the protesters (b) the soldiers (c) the ambassador himself? 3. In what ways does the content of source 3.8 differ from that of source 3.9? 4. In what ways does Kollantai’s report (source 3.10) support that of Hardinge (source 3.9)? 5. What does source 3.10 indicate about the perspective (point of view) and background of the author?

. . . [T]he entrances [to the Palace Square] were closed by the troops, who were assembled in large numbers of both cavalry and infantry in the square itself. It was about 3 o’clock that endeavours were made to effect the dispersal of the crowds . . . packed with their women and children . . . in the streets. They offered no provocation beyond jeering at the officers and men, asking them why they were not fighting the Japanese, &c., when suddenly, according to the evidence of two trustworthy eyewitnesses, a company of the Preobajensky Regiment was brought up . . . and, after three rapidly given warnings to the crowd to go, the order to fire was given. The fact that the troops were at the distance of only 20 yards from the crowd, who could hardly move whether they wished to do so or not, made the fire doubly and even trebly effective, and the results were appalling. Amongst the killed were several women and children, who . . . had tried to turn and flee, and who were shot in the back. Here there were between 80 and 100 killed and many wounded. From that time till midnight the Cossacks continued to charge the crowd, and firing went on at five or six points in the town . . . As to the necessity for such draconian measures as cavalry charges and volleys into an unarmed and peaceful crowd, there can be but a negative verdict, and I am firmly convinced that, had the police been as efficient as that of London, three or four hundred policemen would have been amply sufficient to deal with the crowds without resort to such extreme measures . . . It is rumoured that the 14th Regiment of Marines . . . refused to fire on the crowd . . . this may be true, since they were apparently withdrawn from duty although I saw them posted on the quay on Sunday morning. It is, moreover, quite certain that a good many soldiers fired intentionally over the heads of the crowds . . . . . . [T]he Emperor has played into the hands of the revolutionaries, who have not been slow to broadcast throughout the country the news that the workmen of St Petersburgh, having peacefully approached the Emperor with the object of laying their grievances before the ‘Little Father’, have been mowed down by His Majesty’s troops. This incident will have created a deep gulf, which will not be easily bridged, between the Emperor and the working classes who have hitherto been the most loyal subjects of the throne, and a blow will have been struck at the autocracy from which it will be difficult to recover. . . . [A]lthough order may to all outward appearance be restored by repressive measures, the public unrest can only be allayed by large measures of reform . . . Sir Charles Hardinge to the Marquess of Lansdowne, quoted in K. Bourne and D. Cameron Watt, British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print, Series A, Vol. 3 (Russia, 1905–1906), University Publications of America, USA, 1983, pp. 17–19.

Source 3.10 A comment from Aleksandra Kollantai, member of the Bolshevik faction of the Social Democrats, who took part in the Bloody Sunday march

I noticed that mounted troops stood drawn up in front of the Winter Palace itself, but everyone thought that it did not mean anything . . . All the workers were peaceful and expectant. They wanted the Tsar or one of his highest, gold-braided ministers to come . . . and take the humble petition . . . At first I saw the children who were hit [by rifle fire] and dragged down from the trees . . . We heard the clatter of hooves. The Cossacks rode right into the crowd and slashed with their sabres like madmen. A terrible confusion arose. Quoted in Barbara Evans Clements, Bolshevik Feminist: The Life of Aleksandra Kollantai, Indiana University Press, USA, 1979.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

49

The 1905 revolution

soviets W councils where workers’ representatives would voice their grievances

Russification W the government policy of enforcing support of Russian language, culture and traditions and suppressing any support for the language, culture and traditions of other groups living within the Russian empire

Hostility to the events of Bloody Sunday reverberated throughout the empire. The people responded with nine months of strikes, peasant revolts, mutinies in the army and navy and the formation of organised groups demanding change and reform. Liberals demanded a constitution. Workers began to form soviets where they would meet to express grievances and plan action. Peasants seized land and property and launched attacks against upper-class landowners. NonRussians participated in violent demonstrations against the government’s Russification policies, which had denied them the free expression of their languages, traditions and religious beliefs. Events reached a crisis in October 1905 when the different opposition groups united in a general strike. Transport, communications, factories, shops, schools, universities and government offices — all stopped functioning. Workers participated in street demonstrations, riots, looting and the destruction of symbols of tsarist authority. The police could not maintain law and order. Soldiers either could not be trusted or could not be transported quickly enough to particular trouble spots. It seemed that Nicholas II and his government would be overthrown by the revolutionary force of opponents from all levels of Russian society.

The October Manifesto and the Tsar’s survival duma W an elected parliament for Russia, with the power to make laws universal male suffrage W the right to vote given to all males at a certain age

Read a translation of the October Manifesto by accessing the website for this book and clicking on the October Manifesto 1905 weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii).

50

Retrospective

Nicholas II remained in power in late 1905 largely because he introduced some reforms. In the October Manifesto of 17 October 1905, he announced the creation of a duma — a national assembly which would be elected on the basis of universal male suffrage and be given power to make laws. This meant that the Tsar could no longer consider himself an autocrat. The Manifesto also allowed freedom of speech and made political parties legal. The October Manifesto gained Nicholas support among liberals, especially the Octobrists — a new party named in the Manifesto’s honour. Liberals were willing to see the Manifesto as an opportunity to at least begin a process of reforming the government. They began to withdraw the support they had previously given to the strike movement. In November 1905, the Tsar issued a law announcing the cancellation of the unpopular redemption payments from 1907 onwards. The peasants would finally have ownership of the land they had been repaying since the 1860s. The Manifesto did not address problems of poverty, low wages and poor working conditions. Workers in St Petersburg and Moscow continued their strikes in the hope of gaining an 8-hour working day. In December 1905, the police arrested the leaders of the powerful St Petersburg Soviet and, in Moscow, loyal troops ruthlessly crushed an uprising that had paralysed the city for more than two weeks. French bank loans and the return of troops from Manchuria helped the Tsar to re-establish his authority. In reality, the revolution lasted until mid 1907. In the countryside, peasants seized land and Socialist Revolutionaries undertook a campaign of terror against tsarist officials. The Tsar’s position was gradually restored — helped by the holding of trials, the use of troops to crush revolts and the use of the hangman’s noose, known as ‘Stolypin’s necktie’, to execute terrorists.

Source 3.11 A cartoon entitled ‘Via Appia’ from Sprut (Octopus), No. 5, 1906

SOURCE QUESTION

What does the cartoon in source 3.11 indicate about the tsarist government and people’s attitudes towards it?

The Tsar’s failure to address the problems of Russia To ensure his long-term survival, the Tsar needed to address the problems that had caused the 1905 revolution. His survival was pinned on the hopes of pleasing some groups in Russian society and ignoring the demands of others. The two main attempts at long-term reform were: W the introduction of a duma W Prime Minister Stolypin’s efforts to create a more prosperous peasantry whose improved conditions would encourage loyalty to the Tsar.

Failure to make the duma work

state of emergency W a situation in which a government is under threat in its attempts to assert its authority and control over events and the actions of particular groups

The creation of a duma should have ended Nicholas’ autocratic power. The Fundamental Laws, issued in April 1906, demonstrated the Tsar’s reluctance to do this. They still described the Tsar’s authority as ‘autocratic’ although it had ceased to be ‘unlimited’. They went on to proclaim his rights to: W dismiss the duma and announce new elections whenever he wished W continue to personally choose and dismiss his ministers rather than allow the duma this power. This meant government ministers would continue to be responsible to the Tsar rather than to the duma. W declare new laws alone at any time that he announced a state of emergency or whenever the duma was not in session. The Fundamental Laws also outlined the role of the State Council. The Tsar would appoint half of its members and it would have to approve all laws. Thus, it would act like an upper house but one strongly influenced by the Tsar.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

51

Thus, before the first duma had met in July 1906, the Tsar had demonstrated his unwillingness to allow it any real power. Nicholas II dismissed it after only two and a half months. He had been angered by its discussion of proposals for land redistribution — proposals which, if adopted, would threaten his own landholdings and those of most of Russia’s upper class.

Creation of a more conservative duma

assassination W the murder of a significant person, usually for political reasons

Between the periods of the first and second dumas, the Tsar used his emergency powers to declare a number of new laws, including Stolypin’s agrarian reforms (see below). In June 1907, he ordered the closure of the second duma. Even more radical than the first, it had lasted only three and a half months. On 3 June 1907, using the emergency powers, Prime Minister Stolypin illegally changed the electoral law to ensure that the third duma would be dominated by landowners and businessmen and have limited chances of working-class membership. The third duma lasted its full five-year term and was successful in that its more conservative membership did agree on some reform. In 1908, for example, it announced a 10-year program to introduce compulsory education. By 1911, however, even the Octobrist Party — the most significant party in the third duma — was expressing its frustration with the lack of cooperation from the Tsar and the State Council. With Stolypin’s assassination in the same year, the Tsar lost his most skilled adviser. The fourth and final duma lasted from 1912 to 1917 but lacked the power to introduce the reforms needed to win the support of the people.

Failure to increase peasant support for the Tsar Peasants disliked the fact that it was the commune, not the individual, that owned land. They resented strip farming that gave them only scattered parcels of land. Stolypin had hoped that his plans for agrarian reform would succeed in ending these major causes of peasant discontent. His reforms included the following: W Peasants could now demand that their commune allocate land to them as individuals. W Peasants could also demand this land as a single parcel, rather than the strips in several different areas as was the usual practice. W Loans from the Peasant Land Bank would help peasants to buy additional land. W Encouragement of migration to western Siberia would give peasants access to more land than was available in the overcrowded regions of central and southeastern Russia. Stolypin believed it would take about 20 years for his reforms to work. By 1915, about 30 per cent of households had requested individual ownership but only just over two-thirds of them had received it. Only 10 per cent of households had requested their land in the single parcel that would enable them to establish separate farms. The least change occurred in the central and southeastern areas of the fertile ‘black earth’ provinces where discontent was most threatening to the Tsar’s authority. It seemed that Russia’s poorest peasants preferred the security of the commune to the uncertainty of being responsible for their own livelihoods.

52

Retrospective

Revival of popular protest, 1912–14 In early 1912, soldiers shot dead 230 striking miners on Siberia’s Lena goldfield (see page 198). As news of the event spread, sympathy strikes and demonstrations occurred throughout the empire. Revolutionaries spoke of workers’ lives sacrificed in the capitalists’ quest for gold. That year, 550 000 workers (compared with 8000 in 1911) went on strike as a form of political protest. In 1913, around 502 000 workers held similar protests. Few workers in that year celebrated the 300-year anniversary of Romanov rule. In the period from January to July 1914, around 1 059 000 workers went on strike. By July 1914, Russia was in the throes of a general strike that echoed the revolutionary discontent of 1905. Then World War I broke out the following month — perhaps saving the tsarist government from a major revolutionary outburst.

The role of World War I in the fall of the tsarist regime Historians debate Russia’s involvement in World War I. Did it interrupt a period of peaceful evolution towards a reformed system of tsarist government? Or did it accelerate a revolutionary movement already threatening to overthrow it? Historians agree that Russia’s involvement in World War I played a crucial role in the downfall of Nicholas II and his regime. Even before war began, one of the Tsar’s ministers had advised him of its dangers (see source 3.12). Source 3.12 An extract from Interior Minister Peter Durnovo’s February 1914 letter to the Tsar, warning of the dangers of Russian involvement in a European war

[I]in the event of defeat . . . social revolution in its most extreme form is inevitable . . . the trouble will start with the blaming of the Government for all disasters. In the legislative institutions a bitter campaign against the Government will begin, followed by revolutionary agitations throughout the country, with Socialist slogans, capable of arousing and rallying the masses, beginning with the division of the land and succeeded by a division of all valuables and property. The defeated army, having lost its most dependable men, and carried away by the tide of primitive peasant desire for land, will find itself too demoralized to serve as a bulwark of law and order. The legislative institutions and the intellectual opposition parties, lacking real authority in the eyes of the people, will be powerless to stem the popular tide, aroused by themselves, and Russia will be flung into hopeless anarchy, the issue of which cannot be foreseen . . . Extract from complete letter reproduced at http://stetson.edu/~psteeves/classes/durnovo.html

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. In source 3.12, what did Durnovo consider to be the danger of war for the government? 2. What does the source reveal of the perspective from which Durnovo viewed the situation? Support your response with evidence from the source.

patriotism W devotion to and support for one’s country

World War I began in the early days of August 1914. Russia fought with its allies, France and Britain, against Germany, its ally Austria–Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. In the beginning, most Russian people responded enthusiastically. Fierce expressions of patriotism saw attacks on all things German, from the German embassy to the German-sounding name of the Russian capital, which was changed from St Petersburg to the more Russiansounding Petrograd.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

53

Source 3.13 A photograph showing St Petersburg (Petrograd) residents in the square outside the Winter Palace in a demonstration of support for the Tsar’s government in the early months of the war SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What does source 3.13 show about the relationship between Tsar Nicholas II and his people at the outbreak of the war? 2. To what extent does this portray an accurate/ inaccurate view of the people’s attitude towards their Tsar at this time?

.

Increased hardships In reality, the decision to go to war sounded the death knell of the Romanov government with the hardships of war severely undermining any remaining loyalty people might have felt towards Nicholas II. By late 1914, dreams of a short victorious war had given way to its realities — high casualty rates, inadequate medical care, shortages of food, guns and bullets, loss of land and lost access to supplies and markets through both the Baltic and Black seas. Russia’s enemy, Germany, was an industrialised nation with a well-trained, well-equipped army. The Russian army was fighting a twentieth-century war with nineteenth-century training and inadequate equipment. The Russian government could not cope with the economic strains this created. When the Tsar decided to ban alcohol for the duration of the war, the government lost 33 per cent of its tax revenue. By 1916, the war alone was costing nearly five times the 1913 budget allowance. Russian soldiers suffered because of the Tsar’s poor decision making and poor financial planning. Some infantry units had rifles for only two-thirds of their soldiers. Ammunition was rationed. Many soldiers lacked the boots and warm underwear essential for survival in the bitterly cold conditions of the first winter of war. Morale was low. Russia’s poor railway network meant that it was difficult to transport supplies to either the battlefront or the home front. The loss of men and animals from villages disrupted food production. Food supply of the armed forces took precedence over food supply of the cities. Peasants saw little benefit in marketing their grain for money of decreasing value. Fuel was expensive and in short supply. Inadequate transport saw the already limited city food supplies left rotting at rural railway stations. War increased the pressures on Russia’s industries. New factories brought more labour into the cities. The workforce was four times larger than it had been in 1914 with 33 per cent of this new workforce moving to Petrograd.

54

Retrospective

Living standards declined. Wage increases averaged 100 per cent. Inflation was a major issue with prices of basic needs being at least double and as much as five times higher than pre-war figures. With price increases averaging 300 per cent and with coal, wood and grain in short supply, city dwellers struggled continually to withstand malnutrition and unsanitary living conditions. Source 3.14 An extract from an October 1916 report compiled by the secret police on the problems created by difficult living conditions in Petrograd

Despite the great increase in wages, the economic condition of the masses is worse than terrible. While the wages of the masses have risen 50 percent, and only in certain categories 100 to 200 percent . . . the prices on all products have increased 100 to 500 percent . . . wages for a worker before the war were [as follows in comparison with current wages] [in roubles]: [Type of Worker] Unskilled Metalworker Electrician

[Prewar Wages] 1.00 to 1.25 2.00 to 2.50 2.00 to 3.00

[Present Wages] 2.50 to 3.00 4.00 to 5.00 5.00 to 6.00, etc.

At the same time, the cost of consumer goods needed by the worker has changed in the following incredible way [in roubles]: [Item] Rent for a corner [of a room] Dinner (in a tearoom) Tea (in a tearoom) Boots Shirt

SOURCE QUESTION

What does the writer of source 3.14 indicate about: (a) economic hardships (b) problems of daily life (c) the mood in Petrograd in late 1916?

[Prewar Cost] 2.00 to 3.00 monthly 0.15 to 0.20 0.07 5.00 to 6.00 0.75 to 0.90

[Present Cost] 8.00 to 12.00 1.00 to 1.20 0.35 20.00 to 30.00 2.50 to 3.00, etc.

Even if we estimate the rise in earnings at 100 percent, the prices of products have risen, on the average, 300 percent. The impossibility of even buying many food products and necessities, the time wasted standing idle in queues to receive goods, the increasing incidence of disease due to malnutrition and unsanitary living conditions (cold and dampness because of lack of coal and wood), and so forth, have made the workers, as a whole, prepared for the wildest excesses of a ‘hunger riot’ . . . If in the future grain continues to be hidden, the very fact of its disappearance will be sufficient to provoke in the capitals and in the other most populated centers of the empire the greatest disorders, attended by pogroms and endless street rioting. The mood of anxiety, growing daily more intense, is spreading to ever wider sections of the populace. Never have we observed such nervousness as there is now . . . Quoted in G. Vernadsky et al. (eds), A Source Book for Russian History from Early Times to 1917, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1972, Vol. 3, pp. 867–8.

Decline in the Tsar’s authority In July 1915, the Tsar took personal command of his troops at the battlefront. From then on, he had to accept personal blame for Russia’s military failures. While Nicholas II was at the front, the German-born Tsarina, Alexandra, took over responsibility for the day-to-day business of government. This had the effect of further isolating him from the demands and mood of his people and increasing the political influence of his wife.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

55

The Tsarina’s poor political ability increased people’s hostility towards her. Many suspected her of being a traitor. Alexandra’s political failings were evident in the succession of incompetent people whom she recommended for appointment as ministers — often on the advice of Rasputin. ‘Rasputin’, a word meaning ‘immoral’, was the nickname given to a monk named Grigorii. He was a self-appointed mystic, infamous for his drunkenness and womanising. The Tsarina listened to him because he seemed to be able to relieve the sufferings of her son, Alexei. (Alexei had haemophilia — a rare disease in which a person’s blood does not clot.) Many people feared that Rasputin had become so influential with the Tsarina that he was the real ruler of Russia. Source 3.15 A cartoon from around 1916 depicting a commonly accepted view of Rasputin’s relationship with the royal family. The inscription means ‘The Russian tsars at home’.

SOURCE QUESTION

Describe the cartoon in source 3.15, and identify and explain the cartoonist’s message and perspective.

56

Retrospective

The coordination of the war effort largely resulted from the initiatives of key duma politicians, educated liberals and some industrialists — not from Nicholas II. For example: W In late 1914, the duma established a committee to organise aid for war victims. W In May 1915, Russian merchants and industrialists established the War Industries Committee (WIC) to organise the production of war materials. W In June 1915, zemstvos united with similar organisations in the towns to form ZemGor, an organisation with the goal of assisting the sick and wounded. The duma challenged the Tsar’s authority. Members of two key parties, the Octobrists and the Kadets, joined with a small number of right-wing duma deputies to form the Progressive Bloc. It demanded a ‘government of public confidence’, meaning a government whose ministers were appointed by the duma rather than the Tsar (or Tsarina). The Tsar refused. By late 1916, discontent within Russia had reached crisis point. Over two million Russian soldiers were dead. Those who replaced them brought their civilian grievances with them into the army. The duma, ZemGor, the WIC and the majority of Russia’s upper classes no longer supported the Tsar. In December 1916, the Tsar’s cousin and uncle murdered Rasputin. They feared that Rasputin’s close association with the royal family would lead to their own downfall as well as that of the Tsar. The Tsar also lost his authority in the eyes of working-class people. They were no longer willing to meet the expectations of loyalty, respect and patriotism that he had demanded of them. Police feared that the strains resulting from the increased hardships of everyday life would lead to riots and violence.

Revolution! By early 1917, Nicholas II was probably the most hated man in Russia. The people were enduring a particularly severe winter, with temperatures averaging –12ºC. Inflation saw food prices in early 1917 averaging four times their cost in 1914. In Petrograd in late February 1917, women queued for hours waiting for non-existent bread and then attacked the bakeries. On 22 February, a lockout at the Putilov metalworks brought workers onto the streets in antigovernment protest marches. Striking female textile workers joined them the following day. By 25 February, there were nearly 250 000 striking workers demonstrating in the city centre. Revolutionaries called for the government to stand aside. The local military commander, General Khabalov, could not control the situation. Source 3.16 An extract from General Khabalov’s advice to the Tsar on 25 February 1917

I report that, as a result of the bread shortage, a strike broke out in many factories on February 23 and 24. On February 24, around 200 000 workers were out on strike and forced others to quit their jobs. Streetcar service was halted by the workers. In the afternoons of February 23 and 24, some of the workers broke through to the Nevskii [the main street], whence they were dispersed. Violence led to broken windows in several shops and streetcars. Quoted in G. Vernadsky et al., op. cit., p. 878.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

57

Rodzianko, the president of the duma, begged the Tsar to form a ministry of public confidence before it was too late. Source 3.17 Correspondence to the Tsar from the duma president, Rodzianko, in late February 1917, and the Tsar’s reported response

Rodzianko: The situation is serious. The capital is in a state of anarchy. The government is paralyzed; the transportation system has broken down; the supply systems for food and fuel are completely disorganized. General discontent is on the increase. There is disorderly shooting in the streets; some of the troops are firing at each other. It is necessary that some person enjoying the confidence of the country be entrusted immediately with the formation of a new government. There can be no delay. Any procrastination is fatal. I pray God that at this hour the responsibility not fall upon the sovereign. Tsar: That fatty Rodzianko has sent me some nonsense, which I shan’t even answer. Rodzianko quoted in G. Vernadsky et al., op. cit., p. 879; the Tsar quoted in H. Seton-Watson, The Russian Empire: 1801–1917, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1967, p. 725.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What does General Khabalov’s report (source 3.16) indicate about the mood in Petrograd in late February 1917? 2. What does Rodzianko’s report (source 3.17) indicate? 3. What does the Tsar’s reply (also in source 3.17) indicate about his ability to rule Russia? 4. What is the perspective of each of the authors in relation to the situation in Russia in early 1917?

To read a translation of this order, access the website for this book and click on the Petrograd Soviet Order No. 1 weblink for this chapter.

On 26 February 1917, the Tsar ordered the troops to put down the disturbances. The Volynsky Regiment refused to shoot at rioting strikers, killed the officers who had issued the orders and joined in the demonstrations. One by one, other regiments followed this example. By 1 March, the entire Petrograd garrison had joined the revolution, the Council of Ministers no longer met and workers and soldiers had united to revive the Petrograd Soviet, which had not met since 1905. The Petrograd Soviet then issued its famous Order No. 1, demanding that all regiments submit to its authority rather than to that of the Tsar’s generals. Even though the duma had been dissolved, leaders of its major parties continued to meet. These parties fell into the role of forming a new tsarless government.

Abdication abdication W the giving up or renouncing of a position of power or of a right or claim

58

Retrospective

The Tsar finally took the situation seriously enough to begin the trip back from military headquarters in Mogilev. Railway workers refused to let him go any further than Pskov. His generals advised abdication as the only means of returning Russian soldiers to the war effort. On 2 March 1917, Nicholas II abdicated for both himself and his son. On 3 March, his brother, the Grand Duke Mikhail, refused the responsibility of the throne. The abdication and the events that followed it ended over three centuries of Romanov rule. What took its place was a Provisional Government which in reality had to share its power with that of the Petrograd Soviet. By late 1917, the power of soviets throughout Russia was stronger than that of the Provisional Government. In October 1917, the Bolshevik party created another revolution by seizing power in the name of the soviets.

Source 3.18 A photograph from May 1917 showing residents of Petrograd burning Romanov coats of arms, two months after Nicholas II’s abdication

SOURCE QUESTION

How useful is the photograph in source 3.18 as evidence of public feeling about the Romanovs in 1917?

Events at Yekaterinburg communism W a political ideology and economic system, developed by Karl Marx (1818–1883), in which people share equally the ownership of their society’s resources, contribute to its work according to their abilities, and are provided for according to their needs. Its main ideas include the abolition of private ownership of property; government control of the nation’s resources; and the elimination of classes.

The ‘disappearance’ of the Tsar and his family (see page 42) came in the midst of the Russian Civil War of 1918–20 in which the Bolsheviks fought to establish their control of Russia and the power to implement communism. In 1976, two Russians, Gueli Riabov and Alexander Avdonin, began a systematic attempt to discover the Romanov burial site. They used old maps, testimony from the 1918–19 investigations and from family members of the executioners. They also used the unpublished account of Yakov Yurovsky, a self-confessed member of the execution squad. On 30 May 1979, in the forest near Yekaterinburg, the men discovered bones and three skulls less than a metre below ground. Fearing how the anti-tsarist Russian government might respond to their discovery, they kept their find secret for over ten years. In April 1989, feeling more secure under the reformist government of Mikhail Gorbachev, Riabov revealed the information to a Russian newspaper. In 1991, forensic scientists assembled nine skeletons from the grave. They used dental records, computer modelling and DNA testing to help identify them. Based on analysis of X and Y chromosomes, they concluded that five were female and four were male. DNA tests then indicated that five of the people had been related to one another and that these five were parents and their three daughters.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

59

Scientists then looked for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which is only passed on by a mother to her children. Four of the female skeletons had this mtDNA. Further testing showed it to be identical in sequence to DNA samples provided by Prince Philip (the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II). As the Tsarina would have been Prince Philip’s great aunt (through the maternal line), this meant there was a 98.5 per cent likelihood that these bones were those of the Tsarina and three of her daughters. Scientists identified the bones of Nicholas II after comparing them with those of his brother Georgiy, and to two other relatives. The bones of Alexei and one of the Tsar’s daughters are still missing. According to Yurovsky’s account, he had some of the bones buried elsewhere as there was not enough room in the main grave. Further investigations have failed to find any more remains. This is a puzzle that historians, archaeologists and forensic scientists are still trying to resolve conclusively.

Postscript The Romanov family seems to be undergoing a rehabilitation within postCommunist Russia. On 17 July 1998, the eightieth anniversary of the executions, the family’s remains were buried in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St Petersburg. In August 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church proclaimed Nicholas and his immediate family to be saints. In September 2006, at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Tsar’s mother, Danish-born Maria Fiodorovna, was reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. On 15 November 2006, Moscow’s Tverskoi district court granted the appeal of the Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna (who claims to be the Tsar’s legal heir) against another court’s ruling that the Romanov family had not been the victims of political repression. This opens the door for the execution of the Romanovs to be legally viewed as a political crime and for the family itself to be legally viewed as victims of Bolshevik repression. Source 3.19 Photograph showing Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary representing the Danish royal family at the September 2006 ceremony marking the return of the remains of the Danish-born Maria Feodorovna, mother of the last Tsar of Russia. Maria Feodorovna was re-buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

60

Retrospective

Meeting objectives and outcomes Key features, issues, individuals and events

P1.1, P1.2

1. Complete the following table to identify the similarities and differences between the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Use a tick to indicate the features of each revolution. (P1.2) Table 3.1

Comparing the revolutions

Key features

1905 revolution

1917 revolution

Strikes Involvement in war Groups demanding change Mutinies Popular protest Failure of reform attempts Economic hardship Attacks on property Government repression Tsar’s tarnished reputation Peasant revolts Involvement in war

Change and continuity over time

P2.1

2. Imagine yourself as the editor of a secret anti-tsarist newspaper. Your task is to write an editorial for an issue marking the second anniversary of the October Manifesto. Your focus is on conveying your view of the extent to which the Tsar’s government has fulfilled the reforms promised in October 1905. You should conclude with your summary of the position of the Tsar’s government in October 1907. (P2.1) 3. Discussion issue: Why did the revolution of February 1917 succeed when the revolution of 1905 had failed to overthrow the Tsar’s power? (P2.1, P3.5)

The process of historical inquiry

P3.1–P3.5

4. Compile a dossier of 5–10 different types of sources that you think encapsulate the reasons for the decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty. Arrange the sources into a logical sequence. For each source, provide in your own words: (a) a caption identifying the type of source it is (for example, diary extract, graph, photograph, police report) (b) a brief description of its contents (c) information about its date and where it comes from (d) a comment identifying and explaining the perspective of its creator, the value of the information the source provides and your judgement of its usefulness and reliability. (P3.2–P3.5)

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty

61

5. The following people are to take part in a demonstration in Petrograd in February 1917: W a housewife struggling with the problems of inflation and inadequate food supplies W a nurse who has been tending the wounded on the railway platform W a factory worker W a soldier who has deserted the army W a member of the aristocracy. (a) Design a slogan for each of the protest posters that these people will carry. (b) Briefly explain the conditions in Russia that would have contributed to the perspective voiced by each of these people. (P3.4)

Communicating an understanding of history

P4.1, P4.2

6. Use a dictionary and/or the glossary to find the meanings of each of the following terms: absolute power; anti-Semitism; autocracy; communism; democracy; liberalism; nationalism; revolution; state of emergency. What examples of these were evident in Russia around 1905–1917? (P4.1) 7. Your task is to write an account for an English-speaking newspaper explaining the Tsar’s downfall. Your account should: (a) provide information on the events of February 1917 (b) explain to your readers the long-term factors that led to the Tsar’s abdication (c) explain to your readers short-term factors that led to the Tsar’s abdication. Support your article with a range of different types of sources. You may wish to include some visual sources from this chapter or visit the website for this book and access the Romanovs weblink for this chapter for additional ideas. Consider where they might fit into your account, what captions you would give them and what other sources you could use as evidence to support your account. In making these choices, keep in mind the type of audience you envisage for your article. Devise a suitable headline and choose an appropriate date for the article. (P4.2)

62

Retrospective

4

The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 The areas of focus of this case study are:

KEY CONCEPTS

Key concepts relevant to this chapter are: W capitalism W liberalism W nationalism W terrorism KEY DATES

W W W

W

Zionism — its origins and aspirations Conflicting Arab and Jewish responses to the Balfour Declaration The nature of Arab and Jewish responses to the question of a Jewish homeland post-World War II The UN partition of Palestine

1897 Zionist Conference

T First

1914 T Ottoman

empire allies with Germany 1915–16

T McMahon–Hussein

correspondence 1916 T Sykes–Picot

agreement

1917 T Balfour

Declaration

1923 T British

Mandate of Palestine 1937 Commission, two-state solution proposed

T Peel

1936–39 T Palestinian

Arab rebellion

1939–45 T Holocaust in German-occupied Europe 1947 General Assembly votes for partition plan

T UN

Source 4.1 A recent photograph taken at dusk showing Jewish people praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and, beyond it, the Dome of the Rock, part of the Islamic Al Aqsa Mosque

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

63

Introduction The current war in Iraq is only the most recent of many conflicts in the area described as the Middle East. However, one modern conflict that has been at its most intense over the past 60 years is the conflict between the Arab Palestinians and the Israelis in the area that, between the two world wars, was the British Mandate of Palestine. This conflict has its origins both in events in Europe over the past 200 years and in different interpretations of over 2000 years of history.

Early history of the Jews in the Middle East Some of humankind’s earliest moves from a hunter-gatherer to a settled agricultural way of life took place in the Middle East. Jericho, the earliest major city, was founded around 6500 BC and, by 1600 BC, the people of the region, given the name Canaanites, had created the first alphabet, a syllabic script of 28 letters. In the twelfth century BC, according to Jewish tradition recorded in the book of Exodus, Moses led the Jewish people out of captivity in Egypt and they settled along the Jordan River, creating their state through conflicts with the various Caananite tribes. By 1000 BC, David had become king of the two Jewish states: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. For much of the next 1200 years, this region was under the control of various foreign powers. In 772 BC, the Assyrians conquered Samaria, the capital of Israel, and around 30 000 Israelites were taken into captivity. In 587 BC, after a 16-month siege, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem. The following year saw the destruction of the Great Temple of Jerusalem. Babylonian rule was replaced in turn by that of the Persians. The Persians allowed the Jews captured in Babylon to return and to practise their religion. In 516 BC, the Great Temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem. For the next 500 years, Jewish religion continued to develop and earlier religious and historical writings were compiled to form the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament). Source 4.2 A map showing the early empires of the Middle East

64

Retrospective

monotheism W refers to the characteristics of religions, such as Judaism, Islam and Christianity, where there is a belief in only one god Wailing Wall W a wall that remains from the temple of Jerusalem, where Jews still assemble for lamentation and prayers

In 6 BC, the area became part of the Roman empire as the Province of Judaea. The strict monotheism of the Jews and their fierce independence led to Judaea being one of the most troubled of the Roman provinces. In AD 69, the Roman Emperor Vespasian led an attack on Jerusalem. The following year, the temple was destroyed, leaving only part of one wall standing — the part now known as the Western Wall, or Wailing Wall (see source 4.1, page 63, and source 4.3). Source 4.3 This photograph from the early twentieth century shows Jewish people praying at the Western Wall or Wailing Wall, the remains of the old Jewish temple at Jerusalem. The housing to the left and back was later removed to open up a larger space for worshippers (see source 4.1).

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Using the text and source 4.1 (page 63), explain why this section of Jerusalem has been a site of conflict between Arab Palestinians and Israelis. 2. Jewish people today prefer the term ‘Western Wall’ to ‘Wailing Wall’. What might be the different implications of using each term? 3. List the changes that have taken place at the site of the wall between the early twentieth century (source 4.3) and recent times (source 4.1). How can an understanding of the history of Jerusalem help to explain the changes?

Diaspora W meaning ‘the dispersion’; in Jewish history, the term refers to those periods when the Jews were forced out of their homeland

A Jewish revolt against the Romans came to an end at Masada in AD 73, when about 1000 Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. A second Jewish revolt broke out in AD 132 when the Romans began building a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish temple. After two years of bitter fighting, the Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the total destruction of Jerusalem, refused Jews entry to the city and forced their dispersion throughout the empire. The province was renamed Assyria Palestina to eradicate any memory of the Jews. This dispersion of the Jews was called the Great Diaspora. By the Middle Ages, there were Jewish communities from Britain and Spain in the west to Poland, Russia and Turkey in the east. Over time, the people of each Jewish community adopted the language of the country where they were born, but also maintained their religious and cultural practices, including studying the scriptures in their original Hebrew.

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

65

scapegoat W a person or group made to bear the blame for suffering caused by other people or events

For much of the time, the Jews were able to live their separate lives within the wider community. However, there was also a dark side to Jewish experiences, especially in areas of Europe where Christianity was the dominant religion. Despite Jesus and his disciples being themselves practising Jews, some of the early Church Fathers saw the Jews as the murderers of Jesus. Jewish communities were often made the scapegoats in times of plague or war. A massacre of Jews in central Europe took place in the mid seventeenth century in a war between Catholic Poles and Orthodox Ukrainians. At other times, European monarchs relied on Jews to finance their extravagant lifestyles because Jews, as a result of the Diaspora, had links across national boundaries. Some Jews acquired high positions in royal courts and special privileges that went with this.

Arabs in the ancient period

Islam W religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed (c. 570–c. 632) as set down in the Qur’an. The word means ‘submission to the will of God’.

Source 4.4 The Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem are important places of worship for Muslims. SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What is the significance of the Dome of the Rock for Arab Palestinians? 2. These worshippers are involved in salat, one of Islam’s five central practices (Pillars). Access the website for this book and click on the Islam weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii). Use the information to identify the Five Pillars of Islam and what these practices involves.

66

Retrospective

Around 1000 BC, at the same time as David was king in Jerusalem, Arabian cities developed around modern-day Yemen, and later around Mecca and Medina and further north in modern-day Jordan, the capital of the Nabataeans. In the Middle East, the first centuries AD were a period of intellectual and cultural ferment. The Arabs’ involvement in trade brought them into contact with Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian religions and the cultures of Greece, Rome and Persia. Out of this grew an oral poetic tradition and the basis of the modern-day Arabic language, as well as a sense of Arab identity. Arab self-confidence reached a climax in the early seventh century with the rise of Islam. This provided a religious and cultural impulse to Arab identity. The Arabs captured Jerusalem from the Persians in 638, just six years after the prophet Mohammed’s death. Arabs then built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem on what had been the site of the Jewish temple and the Roman Temple to Jupiter (see page 63 and below). Within another 100 years, Islamic influence stretched west around the southern Mediterranean coast to central Spain, East to modern Afghanistan and north to the Caucasus Mountains.

Zionism — its origins and aspirations anti-Semitism W an attitude of prejudice against Jews; arose from a belief in separate ‘races’, with the Jewish ‘race’ being considered inferior to a mythical ‘Aryan’ race Shoah (or Holocaust) W (Jewish for ‘catastrophe’) or Holocaust (‘total destruction by fire’) refer to Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jewish population laissez-faire W the attitude of minimum interference by a government in the lives of people and the conduct of business

Source 4.5 An illustration c. 1890 showing Jews being attacked during a violent pogrom in Kiev, Russia

The slogan of the French revolution was ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ (see page 2). In the nineteenth century, the emphasis was on the equality of all citizens before the law. As these ideas spread through western Europe, governments removed some legal and political restrictions on Jewish communities. However, the social and economic changes accompanying this often led to anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jews. This was expressed in increasingly virulent forms and culminated in the twentieth century in the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany then the tragedy of the Shoah (or Holocaust). The reasons for the growth in anti-Semitism are complex and they varied from country to country. In Germany, it was strongest among the lower middle classes — shopkeepers, tradespeople — and among the peasants. Before the nineteenth century, these groups had many protections from the government but, with governments adopting more laissez-faire economic policies, their position was less secure. They saw Jews now being free to enter the professions, and in many cases being financiers to these new governments. Jews felt that they were taking a greater role in society, but others saw this as a threat and anti-Semitic political parties arose in Germany. In Russia, it was a more primitive anti-Semitism. Jews were forced to live in their own communities and were often the subject of violent attacks (pogroms). Large numbers of Russian Jews migrated to the United States, but some migrated to western Europe, adding to the anti-Semitism there. Source 4.6 An early photograph (undated) of Theodor Herzl (1860–1904)

SOURCE QUESTION

What evidence does source 4.5 provide that the pogroms: (a) were violent (b) were condoned by the government? Zionism W a cultural then political movement with the aim of creating a Jewish state as a refuge against persecution

Theodor Herzl Zionism — the desire for a Jewish state as a refuge for Jews from persecution — grew partly in response to the resurgence of anti-Semitism from the nineteenth century onwards. Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) played a key role in the development of late nineteenth-century Zionism. Herzl was an Austrian Jew. In his early life as a journalist, Herzl was far more interested in agitating for Austrian union with Germany than in matters affecting Jews. His experience in France covering the Dreyfus affair (see chapter 10, page 187) helped him to understand the causes of antiSemitism but also convinced him that it was going to be a long-term problem. In June 1895, Herzl wrote in his diary that, while in Paris, he had begun to

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

67

Ottoman W the Turkish Islamic empire, with its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul)

Source 4.7 Extracts from Theodor Herzl’s 1896 pamphlet Die Judenstaat in which he outlines his proposal for a Jewish State SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Why did Theodor Herzl think that European governments would support the creation of a Jewish state outside of Europe? 2. What did Herzl see as the advantages, as a site for a Jewish homeland, of: (a) Argentina (b) Palestine? 3. What did Herzl think that the Jews could offer the Turkish (Ottoman) empire in return for allowing the Jews to settle there?

understand anti-Semitism historically: ‘Above all I recognised the emptiness and futility of trying to “combat” anti-Semitism’. Herzl argued that the success of emancipated Jews would only lead to anti-Semitism taking new forms. Herzl believed that the only solution was for Jews to have their own state where they would be free to create their own society. In February 1896, he published a pamphlet, Die Judenstaat (‘The Jewish State’), in which he said the choice of location for this Jewish society should be either Palestine (at that time part of the Ottoman empire) or Argentina (see source 4.7). The process would take place with the permission of the government of these states and a company would be set up to finance the purchase of land in these places and establish a Jewish state. Herzl made an attempt to meet with the Ottoman Sultan in June 1896 to discuss a state in Palestine but, despite spending 10 days in Istanbul, Herzl failed to meet the Sultan.

The creation of a new State is neither ridiculous nor impossible . . . The Governments of all countries scourged by Anti-Semitism will be keenly interested in assisting us to obtain the sovereignty we want . . . Shall we choose Palestine or Argentine? We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by Jewish public opinion . . . Argentine is one of the most fertile countries in the world, extends over a vast area, has a sparse population and a mild climate. The Argentine Republic would derive considerable profit from the cession of a portion of its territory to us. The present infiltration of Jews has certainly produced some discontent, and it would be necessary to enlighten the Republic on the intrinsic difference of our new movement. Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very name of Palestine would attract our people with a force of marvellous potency. If His Majesty the Sultan were to give us Palestine, we could in return undertake to regulate the whole finances of Turkey. We should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism . . . Theodor Herzl, Die Judenstaat, Section II, ‘The Jewish Question’, translated from the German by Sylvie D’Avigdor, 1946 edition published by American Zionist Emergency Council in Essential Texts of Zionism.

In August 1897, Herzl organised the first Zionist Conference. The word ‘Zion’ had various meanings in Hebrew literature, including the hill on which the temple was built, but became linked symbolically to Jerusalem or even Israel as a whole. Zionism came to refer to the movement that aimed to create a Jewish state as a refuge against persecution. While many European Jews were not Zionist and did not believe in a Jewish homeland, the Zionist movement gained support. The focus now fell on Palestine as the site of the Jewish state. Other areas were considered (including Australia), especially when, in 1901, the Ottoman Sultan, Abd-El-Hamid, rejected Herzl’s request for a charter to allow colonisation of Palestine. In 1903, the British government offered Uganda as a homeland but this was finally rejected in 1905.

The Middle East in 1900 Since the sixteenth century, the dominant power in the Middle East had been the Islamic Ottoman empire, with its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey). The Arabs of Palestine, like the Christians and Jews, were subjects of the Ottomans. The population of Palestine in 1900 was around 600 000, of whom about 50 000 were Jews.

68

Retrospective

From the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were two significant changes taking place in the Ottoman empire. Internally, the empire was undergoing a rapid modernisation, based on the ideas of the Enlightenment (see page 2). By the mid nineteenth century, edicts were proclaimed that all subjects, whether Christian, Jew or Muslim, were equal before the law. As a result of a revolution in 1908, further changes took place; industrialisation was soon underway and a new stress was placed on education, especially primary education. However, externally the Ottoman empire was in decline. Under attacks from Russia, Austria and the Balkan states in Europe, and from Britain, France and Italy in Africa and the Middle East, the Ottoman empire had been reduced to less than half its original size. The strongest influence in the Middle East was that of the British. In 1882, they occupied Egypt, mainly to protect the Suez Canal which cut through Egypt from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and was a vital link in Britain’s trade with India and the Pacific. In 1889, Britain declared a protectorate over Kuwait, this time to be able to control the Persian Gulf. Between 1889 and 1914, Britain continued to increase its influence in this area (see source 4.8). This led, in turn, to a growing Arab nationalism, especially in what is now Saudi Arabia.

Enlightenment W period in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when it was believed that institutions should be established on the basis of reason rather than tradition and superstition

Source 4.8 Map showing the extent of the Ottoman empire in the Middle East, and European pressures up to 1914 Black Constantinople

GREECE

Sea

OT

TURKEY 1923

RUSSIA RUSSIA

TO

Caspian Sea

M A N

EM

Russian influence from 1907

RE

Mediterranean Sea

Tehran

PI

CYPRUS BP 1878 Annexed to Britain 1914

Damascus Baghdad

AFGHANISTAN PERSIA

Jerusalem Basra

Cairo

KUWAIT

BP 1899–1914 BP 1861

EGYPT

British occupied 1882 BP 1914

Red Sea 0

200

400 km

ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN 1899

BAHRAIN ARABIA Persian Gulf TRUCIAL OMAN Ottoman Empire 1914 BP 1892 Turkey from 1923 British Colony or Protectorate BP 1891 British Protectorate date British sphere of influence

British influence from 1907

INDIA

Arabian Sea OMAN

BP 1891 N

Russian sphere of influence

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. In which Middle Eastern state do you think most conflict would exist between Russia and Britain? What is the modern name of that state? 2. Name three modern states that formed part of the Ottoman Empire in 1914.

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

69

Source 4.9 A 1918 photograph of British soldier and adventurer T. E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’) in Arab dress

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Why did the British government appoint Lawrence in 1916 to support the Arab revolt against the Turks? 2. What do Lawrence’s clothes and weapon show about the nature of this support?

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Which statements in the document in source 4.10 would the Arabs feel most encouraged by? 2. List at least three statements from the source that indicate that the British could place limits on Arab independence. Explain why they would have this effect.

Impact of World War I The situation in the Middle East changed dramatically in 1914 when the Ottoman empire allied itself with Germany in World War I. On the outbreak of war, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt. The Anzacs trained there in 1915 before their attack on Gallipoli and, in 1916, Egypt provided the base for an attack on the Ottomans through Palestine and Syria. The British believed their chances of success would be greater if they could enlist the aid of Arabs in the region to revolt against their Ottoman rulers at the same time as the British were fighting. The British High Commissioner in Cairo, Sir Henry McMahon, worked with the Arab ruler of Mecca, Amir Hussein, during 1915 and 1916 to come up with an understanding that promised the Arabs a portion of the Ottoman empire in return for their support against the Ottomans (see source 4.10 for an extract from the McMahon–Hussein correspondence). An English adventurer, T. E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’, 1888–1935), played an important role in these negotiations and in organising Arab attacks on the Ottomans. Source 4.10 Extracts from a letter from Sir Henry McMahon to Amir Hussein, 24 October 1915, part of the McMahon–Hussein correspondence

As for those regions lying within those frontiers wherein Great Britain is free to act without detriment to the interests of her ally, France, I am empowered in the name of the Government of Great Britain to give the following assurances and make the following reply to your letter: 1. Subject to the above modifications, Great Britain is prepared to recognize and support the independence of the Arabs in all regions within the limits demanded by the Sherif of Mecca. 2. Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places against all external aggression and will recognize their inviolability. 3. When the situation admits, Great Britain will give to the Arabs her advice and will assist them to establish what may appear to be the most suitable forms of government in those various territories. 4. On the other hand, it is understood that the Arabs have decided to seek the advice and guidance of Great Britain only, and that such European advisers and officials as may be required for the formation of a sound form of administration will be British. . . . I am convinced that this declaration will assure you beyond all possible doubt of the sympathy of Great Britain towards the aspirations of her friends the Arabs and will result in a firm and lasting alliance, the immediate results of which will be the expulsion of the Turks from the Arab countries and the freeing of the Arab peoples from the Turkish yoke, which for so many years has pressed heavily upon them. Quoted in T. G. Fraser, The Middle East 1914–1979, Edward Arnold, London, 1980, pp. 12–13.

At about the same time — in May 1916 — Britain, France and Russia signed a secret agreement called the Sykes–Picot agreement, named after the negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France (see source 4.11). This agreement contradicted the McMahon–Hussein correspondence and divided up the Middle East between Britain, France and Russia. However, Russia was excluded from this when it withdrew from World War I in 1917, leaving the region to France and Britain alone.

70

Retrospective

Source 4.11 Extracts from the secret Sykes–Picot agreement between Britain and France, 16 May 1916

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. In Section Three of the agreement, the brown area is to be made an international zone. From what you have read so far, what do you think was the reason for doing this? 2. From Section One, in which areas are the Arabs to be given some degree of recognition? What are some of the limits placed on them by later sections of the agreement? 3. From this agreement, what evidence is there that commercial considerations were very important to the British and French? 4. Reference is made in Sections Nine and Ten to a ‘third power’. Who is this most likely to be?

It is accordingly understood between the French and British governments: One That France and Great Britain are prepared to recognize and protect an independent Arab state or a confederation of Arab states (A) and (B) marked on the annexed map, under the suzerainty of an Arab chief. That in area (A) France, and in area (B) Great Britain, shall have priority of right of enterprise and local loans. That in area (A) France, and in area (B) Great Britain, shall alone supply advisers or foreign functionaries at the request of the Arab state or confederation of Arab states. Two That in the blue area France, and in the red area Great Britain, shall be allowed to establish such direct or indirect administration or control as they desire and as they may think fit to arrange with the Arab state or confederation of Arab states. Three That in the brown area there shall be established an international administration, the form of which is to be decided upon after consultation with Russia, and subsequently in consultation with the other allies, and the representatives of the sheriff of Mecca. Four That Great Britain be accorded (1) the ports of Haifa and Acre, (2) guarantee of a given supply of water from the Tigris and Euphrates in area (A) for area (B). His Majesty’s government, on their part, undertake that they will at no time enter into negotiations for the cession of Cyprus to any third power without the previous consent of the French government. Five That Alexandretta shall be a free port as regards the trade of the British empire, and that there shall be no discrimination in port charges or facilities as regards British shipping and British goods; that there shall be freedom of transit for British goods through Alexandretta and by railway through the blue area, or (B) area, or area (A); and there shall be no discrimination, direct or indirect, against British goods on any railway or against British goods or ships at any port serving the areas mentioned. That Haifa shall be a free port as regards the trade of France, her dominions and protectorates, and there shall be no discrimination in port charges or facilities as regards French shipping and French goods. There shall be freedom of transit for French goods through Haifa and by the British railway through the brown area, whether those goods are intended for or originate in the blue area, area (A), or area (B), and there shall be no discrimination, direct or indirect, against French goods on any railway, or against French goods or ships at any port serving the areas mentioned . . . Nine It shall be agreed that the French government will at no time enter into any negotiations for the cession of their rights and will not cede such rights in the blue area to any third power, except the Arab state or confederation of Arab states, without the previous agreement of His Majesty’s government, who, on their part, will give a similar undertaking to the French government regarding the red area. Ten The British and French government, as the protectors of the Arab state, shall agree that they will not themselves acquire and will not consent to a third power acquiring territorial possessions in the Arabian peninsula, nor consent to a third power installing a naval base either on the east coast, or on the islands, of the Red Sea . . .

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

71

Source 4.12 A map showing the areas specified in the Sykes–Picot agreement of 1916

Black Sea

A

N

A

T

R U S S I A

O

L

I

Caspian

A

Sea

BLUE ZONE (Direct French control) Urfa

Adana

R

Se

S

er

E

an

s

Beirut

Baghdad Riv er

M

Damascus Haifa

Jerusalem Gaza

B ZONE (British influence)

RED ZONE (Direct British control)

Amman

A

INTERNATIONAL ZONE

I

ed

it

A ZONE (French influence) te

r

e an

P

Mosul

ra ph Eu

CYPRUS

Mardin

Tigris

a

Alexandretta Aleppo

Tabriz

Diabekr

Riv

er Basra

Pe

Aqaba

A

R

A

B

I

Kuwait

A

n ia rs lf u G

EGYPT

Re d

N

Se a 0

150

300 km

A third document — which was made public — complicated the situation even further. This was the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 (see source 4.13). It was attached to a letter written by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, to Lord Rothschild, a prominent British Jew. The British hoped to achieve two things by this declaration: W It would help gain Jewish support, especially in the United States which had just entered the war. W There would be a Jewish population in Palestine who would support Britain’s interests in the Suez Canal. A close analysis of the Balfour Declaration, which took months to finalise, shows that it is carefully worded, for example: W it says ‘a’ national home, rather than ‘the’ national home W it recognises the ‘civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine’ — note that Arabs were not mentioned by name, and it did not mention Arabs’ political rights W the last phrase was meant to placate assimilated Jews, who feared that a Jewish homeland could be used as an excuse to expel them from the countries in which they had chosen to live.

72

Retrospective

Source 4.13 The Balfour Declaration, 2 November 1917

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1 Compare source 4.13 with source 4.7, the extract from Theodor Herzl’s Die Judenstaat. What evidence does this source provide that the British government was aware of the Zionist ideas? 2. Considering the date of this document, why do you think the British government might want to enlist Jewish support at this time? 3. In what ways does the document fall short of offering the Zionist dream of a ‘national Jewish state’? 4. Refer to sources 4.10, 4.11, 4.12 and 4.13, then copy and complete the following table. In the third, fourth and fifth columns, enter ‘+’ if that group gained from the agreement, ‘–’ if they lost, and ‘0’ if it did not change the situation. Agreement

Date

Britain

Arabs

Jews

McMahon–Hussein correspondence Sykes–Picot agreement Balfour Declaration

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

73

Conflicting Arab and Jewish responses to the Balfour Declaration The Arab response A few Arabs thought it was possible for Jews to create their own community within Palestine, just as a variety of religious communities had existed under the Ottomans. The Emir Feisal, Arab king of Syria, who was seeking British support for his rule, wrote a letter to this effect in March 1919 (see source 4.14). Source 4.14 Extract from a letter of 3 March 1919, from Emir Feisal of Syria to Professor Felix Frankfurter, following meetings between Emir Feisal and Zionist leader Dr Chaim Weizmann SOURCE QUESTION

We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted by the Zionist Organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best, insofar as we are concerned, to help them through; and we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home . . . We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialistic. Our movement is national and not imperialist; and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a real success without the other . . .

In source 4.14, the Arab leader of Syria stated that Jews and Arabs could live together in Syria. To However, within a few years this situation changed. The two most imporwhat aspects of the history of tant factors responsible were: the region was he referring, to support this belief? What might W Britain’s failure to honour its promise to create a Palestinian state have been his motive in being in W a rapid acceleration in the rate of Jewish migration. In 1920, at the San Remo Conference as part of the peace settlements folsupport of the Jews? mandate W a trusteeship system established by the League of Nations under which former colonies of Germany and the Ottoman empire would be given to particular states with the responsibility of guiding them to self-government

lowing the war, the League of Nations gave Britain a mandate over Palestine (which included modern-day Jordan) and Iraq, and gave France a mandate over Syria and Lebanon. The Balfour Declaration was included as part of the agreement, and Article 4 of the mandate allowed for a Jewish Agency, an organisation to help in ‘matters affecting the Jewish national Home’. While Palestinian rights were also recognised and Transjordan (the land east of the Jordan River) was excluded from the provisions for Jewish settlement, there was no specific mention of a Palestinian state.

Source 4.15 Map showing the areas covered by the British and French mandates of 1920, which divided the former Ottoman territories in the Middle East

TURKEY

is gr

Ti

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Compare the plans under the Sykes–Picot agreement (source 4.12, page 72) with source 4.15. Which European country gained the bulk of the territory? 2. What happened in the 1920s mandate to the A and B zones proposed in the Sykes–Picot agreement? 3. Which three Islamic and Arabic states actually gained more territory in 1920 than was proposed in 1916?

74

Retrospective

PERSIA (IRAN)

Eup

hra

SYRIA CYPRUS

LEBANON Beirut Damascus

tes Baghdad Rive r IRAQ

Riv er

Mediterranean Sea PALESTINE Jerusalem

KUWAIT Persian Gulf

Amman

TRANS-JORDAN (separated from Palestine 1921)

N

EGYPT ARABIA British Mandate 1920 French Mandate 1920

0

Red Sea

200

400 km

In June 1922, Winston Churchill, who was then British Colonial Secretary, announced that the Balfour Declaration was not to be seen as implying the disappearance of ‘the Arabic population, language, or culture in Palestine’. Source 4.16 Extracts from the Churchill White Paper of 1922, in which British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill addresses concerns over the interpretation of the British Mandate

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. In source 4.16, find three arguments that Churchill puts forward to indicate that Britain does not plan a Jewish national state in Palestine. 2. Find at least two aspects of Churchill’s statement that could still be of concern to Palestinian Arabs.

The tension which has prevailed from time to time in Palestine is mainly due to apprehensions, which are entertained both by sections of the Arab and by sections of the Jewish population. These apprehensions, so far as the Arabs are concerned, are partly based upon exaggerated interpretations of the meaning of the [Balfour] Declaration favouring the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government on 2 November 1917. Unauthorized statements have been made to the effect that the purpose in view is to create a wholly Jewish Palestine. Phrases have been used such as that Palestine is to become ‘as Jewish as England is English’. His Majesty’s Government regard any such expectation as impracticable and have no such aim in view. They would draw attention to the fact that the terms of the Declaration referred to do not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded ‘in Palestine’. In this connection it has been observed with satisfaction that at a meeting of the Zionist Congress, the supreme governing body of the Zionist Organization, held at Carlsbad in September, 1921, a resolution was passed expressing as the official statement of Zionist aims ‘the determination of the Jewish people to live with the Arab people on terms of unity and mutual respect, and together with them to make the common home into a flourishing community, the upbuilding of which may assure to each of its peoples an undisturbed national development’ . . . Further it is contemplated that the status of all citizens of Palestine in the eyes of the law shall be Palestinian, and it has never been intended that they, or any section of them, should possess any other juridical status . . . During the last two or three generations the Jews have recreated in Palestine a community, now numbering 80,000 . . . This community has its own political organs . . . its business is conducted in Hebrew . . . and a Hebrew Press serves its needs. It has its distinctive intellectual life and displays considerable economic activity. This community, then . . . has in fact ‘national’ characteristics . . . [it is hoped] that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride . . . It is essential that [this community] should know that it is in Palestine as of right and not on the sufferance. That is the reason why it is necessary that the existence of a Jewish National Home in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed, and that it should be formally recognized to rest upon ancient historic connection. This, then, is the interpretation which His Majesty’s Government place upon the Declaration of 1917, and, so understood, the Secretary of State is of opinion that it does not contain or imply anything which need cause either alarm to the Arab population of Palestine or disappointment to the Jews . . . For the fulfilment of this policy it is necessary that the Jewish community in Palestine should be able to increase its numbers by immigration. This immigration cannot be so great in volume as to exceed whatever may be the economic capacity of the country at the time to absorb new arrivals . . . Winston Churchill, British White Paper, June 1922.

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

75

Arab and Jewish responses to the British mandate The British mandate came into effect in September 1923. The mandate did not guarantee either a Jewish or an Arabic state and therefore, for both communities, the size of the population and the ownership of land became crucial. At the time of the mandate, Jews formed less than five per cent of the population, and so immigration was crucial to them, but Arabs saw immigration as a threat to a Palestinian state. The first Governor of Palestine was Sir Herbert Samuel, a Jew and a Zionist supporter. While there was some opposition to the British, this was muted at the start; in effect, the rule of the British replaced the Ottoman rule under which they had lived. As well, the British officials in Palestine tended to be more pro-Arab in their sympathies, in contrast to officials in England who were more pro-Jewish. The Arab position changed by the end of the 1920s. By 1928 there were about 590 000 Arabs and 150 000 Jews in Palestine, and over half of these Jews were immigrants. In 1929, there was a major conflict over Jewish access to the Western Wall. The wall adjoined Al Aqsa Mosque which was one of the most sacred Islamic sites (see source 4.1, page 63). (A similar incident sparked days of violent confrontation in October 2000.) Over 130 Jews were killed in a struggle to gain better access to the wall and 116 Arabs were killed, almost all by British soldiers trying to stop the violence. In an inquiry into the riots, the British administration blamed the Arabs for starting the riots but considered that they were provoked by the way in which Jews acquired Arab land and evicted the Arabs working on it. The British administrators in Palestine planned to restrict Jewish immigration, but the British government overthrew this. Source 4.17 A photograph from September 1929 showing Palestinian Arabs listening to a proclamation issued by the British administrators announcing that a British Court would put on trial any Palestinians — Arabs or Jews — who took part in disturbances of the peace

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Read the text and identify aspects of the proclamation that indicated the British were treating Arabs and Jews equally. 2. What criticism of (a) the Jews and (b) the Arabs was made in the inquiry held into the 1929 riots?

76

Retrospective

partition W to divide a state into two or more separate states

Haganah W (Hebrew, meaning ‘the defence’) a Jewish paramilitary organisation in the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948

Source 4.18 Graph showing the rising proportion of Jews in Palestine between 1922 and 1940

After Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 and Nazi persecution of Jews began, the migration of Jews to Israel increased. At the same time, many western countries, including Australia, began to place limitations on Jewish migration. Concerned about the increasing rate of immigration and the fact that many Jewish firms were being encouraged to employ only Jewish labour, Palestinian Arabs proclaimed a General Strike in April 1936. The situation soon became violent and 200 Arabs and 80 Jews were killed. An inquiry into this conflict, the Peel Commission, led to a plan to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, while Jerusalem and a strip of land joining it to the Mediterranean Sea remained in British control. Plans to divide their land only led to increased violence by the Arabs, which led in turn to Jewish retaliation. Thousands of Arabs and Jews were killed between 1936 and 1939. To protect themselves, Jewish settlers had created their own defence force — Haganah. A Jewish militant organisation called Irgun was also formed at this time. Britain was increasingly worried by the threat from Nazi Germany and moved closer towards the Palestinian Arabs to gain their support in the Middle East. In 1939, partition was abandoned. In a British government policy statement, known simply as the White Paper of 1939, Arabs were promised a form of independence within 10 years and Jewish immigration was to be restricted for five years and then cease. 1600 000

Jews Total population of Palestine

1400 000 1200 000 1000 000 800 000 600 000 400 000 200 000 0

1922

1925

1928

1931

1934

1937

1940

Year

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. In the graph in source 4.18, the rate of increase in Jewish settlers jumps between 1931 and 1937. What connection does this have with events in Germany at this time? 2. The increase in Jewish settlers slows between 1937 and 1940. What could be an explanation for this?

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

77

Jewish girl Hannah Blumenstein grew up in Munich, Germany, and, even before World War II, her father spent some time in Dachau concentration camp. As an idealistic teenager, Palestine seemed to be her only hope and, at the age of 19, she was on one of the last boats to sail to Palestine before the war broke out. In source 4.19, she describes her experiences as she approaches the coast of Palestine at Haifa. Source 4.19 Hannah Blumstein describes her first view of the ‘Promised Land’. She has since become a strong critic of Israel’s attitude to Palestinian Arabs.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What were the reasons for Hannah’s excitement at the prospect of entering Palestine? 2. What were the things that concerned and worried her?

So as they drew nearer to Haifa, Hannah remembers that they were all ordered to go below deck. Once again, instinct and determination were on her side and she decided that no orders would sabotage her experience of a vital historical moment . . . From her vantage point, where she stood alone on deck, she saw the coast of Palestine for the first time. It held an inexplicable aura of promise: not only of food, drink, and the promise of rest but above all the promise of a new beginning, safe from harm. She felt an instant connection to it. For her, Palestine was ‘a truly promised land’. They waited for the darkness to descend before they came ashore — a whole lot of young people looking for a home. ‘There were some flickering lights and we soon recognised a flotilla of small boats approaching. We had to quickly jump into these and were taken as far inland as necessary to find some footing in the water. We were then immediately distributed by obviously very well trained but also welcoming people. We had arrived.’ Hannah and the pioneers saw themselves as destined for the new beginning. In the quiet darkness, the group went ashore, hungry, thirsty and completely disconnected, having jettisoned their treasured possessions by order when they were on board ship . . . They had truly become ‘stateless persons’, starting a new phase of their lives as unofficial citizens of the state of Palestine, unwelcome and entering the country in stealth as ‘illegal’ immigrants . . . From E. Ratnam, Living to the Full: the Life of Hannah Eady, Writeheart Press, Glenbrook, NSW, 2006.

The nature of Arab and Jewish responses to the question of a Jewish homeland post-World War II During World War II, Arabs and Jews responded differently to the British as the occupying power. While most Jewish groups, even Irgun, supported the British in their attempts to defeat Germany, a small group led by Abraham Stern-Yair argued that ‘The enemy is the one who rules in your country’. The British treated members of this group as war criminals and used torture and assassinations to defeat them. Arabs also tried to work with the British. In February 1945, just before the war ended, an Arab League of 12 Nations was created with British support and the British reaffirmed their desire to limit Jewish immigration. Reports of the Shoah (Holocaust) were emerging from German-controlled territories. But it was only when the advancing allied armies liberated the surviving Jews from the Nazi concentration camps that the full horror of the situation was revealed. When Jewish refugees who had survived the concentration camps tried to enter Palestine, the British continued to honour their promise to the Arabs and forced ships to turn back. Britain only seemed to be adding to the horror that Jews had faced and support grew in the western world for a Jewish homeland.

78

Retrospective

Britain was severely weakened by the effort of the war against Germany and the responses of both Arabs and Jews were based on the belief that both would be fighting for their different views of Palestine’s future. Jews now saw the possibility of creating a homeland while the Palestinian Arabs would do all they could to prevent Palestine being divided. Source 4.20 A photograph of a refugee ship, the Theodor Herzl, attempting to dock in Palestine in April 1947 with 2600 Jewish refugees on board

SOURCE QUESTION

Read the banner on the side of the ship in source 4.20. What message was the banner trying to convey? In November 1945, the British proposed an Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry into the situation. The Committee merely recommended some form of joint Arab–Israeli state. The Committee did recommend that 100 000 Jews be allowed to emigrate but Britain refused to accept this and kept turning back refugee ships. The most famous of these was the immigration ship Exodus. The British navy intercepted the ship and its 4500 refugees were transported back to displaced persons’ camps in Germany. Source 4.21 A photograph of the overcrowded immigration ship, Exodus, arriving at Haifa in Palestine on 18 July 1947

SOURCE QUESTIONS

The banner on the ship in source 4.21 has the words ‘Haganah’ and ‘Exodus 1947’. (Both this ship and the one in source 4.20 were sponsored by the Haganah.) The immigrants themselves named this ship ‘Exodus 1947’. What earlier event were they referring to, and why?

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

79

A meeting of Arab states was held in Syria in June 1946, and this meeting resolved to threaten the British and American interests in the Middle East if the rights of the Palestinian Arabs were not respected. Jewish militants, on the other hand, responded to British policies in July 1946. They bombed the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which was the headquarters of the British civil and military administration. Ninety-one people were killed. In another attack, the bodies of two British sergeants were hung up in public and their bodies booby-trapped, in retaliation for the execution of Jewish terrorists. The British had to take protection in secure compounds. At the height of the conflict there were 100 000 British soldiers in Palestine to keep control of a population of about 1 600 000. Source 4.22 A photograph of the ruins of the southern wing of King David Hotel in Jerusalem after its bombing by Jewish militants in July 1946. Ninety-one people were killed, most of them staff of the British Secretariat and the hotel: 28 British, 41 Arab, 17 Jewish and 5 others. Around 45 people were injured.

SOURCE QUESTION

Why did Jewish terrorists choose this hotel as a target? By February 1947, the British gave up their mandate over Palestine and announced a departure date of 15 May 1948. They handed the question of what to do about the opposing claims of Arabs and Jews to the newly formed United Nations.

80

Retrospective

The United Nations partition of Palestine Source 4.23 A map showing the United Nations partition plan of 1947

The United Nations (UN) was created during World War II to replace the League of Nations. Its 51 member nations were dominated by the western world. The future of Palestine was one of the first issues that confronted the UN. There were two main proposals to resolve the conflict: W Jews favoured a division in two separate states, one Jewish and one Arab. W Arabs favoured a unified state, with proportional representation for Muslims, Christians and Jews. In April 1946, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was established to consider the problem. This committee comprised 11 nations that were considered neutral — including Australia — and was chaired by Swedish judge Emil Sandström. On 1 September 1946, a majority of the nations (Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay) recommended a three-way division of Palestine into: W a Jewish state W an Arab state W a United Nations zone, comprising the contested area of Jerusalem and surrounding districts. A minority of the UNSCOP nations — India, Iran, Yugoslavia — recommended a ‘federal solution’, that is, the formation of one federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states. Australia abstained from the voting.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. List the main points that (a) Arabs and (b) Jews might make about what they would gain and lose by this partition plan. 2. Compare a current map of the Middle East with the proposed areas in source 4.23. © Martin Gilbert 2005/Map redrawn by MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

81

Responses to the partition plan A two-thirds majority in the UN Security Council was needed to ratify the ‘partition plan’ decision. The partition plan was one area on which the Soviet Union and the United States agreed. The Soviet Union wanted to rid itself of Jews and to have an influence in the Middle East. For the United States, a Jewish state in Palestine had two advantages. The policy gained the support of influential Jews in the US but, at the same time, the US had restrictive policies on Jewish immigration and preferred refugees to migrate to Palestine. However, many smaller states and the Islamic states voted against the decision (see source 4.24) and a majority vote was only achieved after pressure by Jewish supporters on some of these smaller states. Arabs then took the case to the International Court of Justice, arguing that a country could not be divided against the wishes of its majority population (twothirds of the population of Palestine in 1948 were Arabs), but this proposal was narrowly defeated. Source 4.24 The result of voting on UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947

In favour of partition plan: 33 (Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussian SSR, Canada, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxemburg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Ukrainian SSR, Union of South Africa, USA, USSR, Uruguay, Venezuela) Against the partition plan: 13 (Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen) Abstained: 10 (Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia)

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What reasons did the countries named as supporting the partition of Palestine have for doing so? Refer to at least three countries in your response. 2. Referring to at least three countries, explain the reasons the states listed as being against the plan had for opposing it. 3. Why do you think the United Kingdom abstained from voting? It was one thing for the UN to have a policy of partition but, having just fought World War II, no major powers were willing to commit the troops needed to enforce it. The issue would be left to Arabs and Jews to fight out among themselves. Arabs saw partition as a betrayal. As the deadline for British withdrawal drew closer, Arabs inside and outside Palestine began to mobilise. In the months following the partition decision, hundreds of Jews and Arabs were killed in clashes throughout Palestine which escalated in 1948 into full-scale civil war, the Israeli War of Independence. On 14 May 1948, the last day of British occupation, Jewish leader David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel. It was immediately recognised by the Soviet Union and the United States, and then by the United Nations.

82

Retrospective

Source 4.25 A photograph showing David Ben-Gurion reading the Declaration of Independence at the ceremony in Tel Aviv, founding the state of Israel, on 14 May 1948

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Whose photograph is on the wall behind David Ben-Gurion? Why do you think this person’s image was chosen? 2. What qualities and experiences led to David Ben-Gurion being chosen as Prime Minister?

The Jewish people had carved out a nation for themselves. However, in the process, problems were created that have haunted them for over 50 years and, at the time of writing, continue to be an area of conflict — that of the Palestinian refugees and an independent Palestinian state.

Meeting objectives and outcomes Key features, issues, individuals and events

P1.1, P1.2

1. Research and present a report on the role played by one of the following individuals in the Middle East. (P1.1) W Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) W Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952) W Abdallah Ibn Hussein of Jordan (1875–1951) W David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) W T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935) 2. Research in more detail and present a report on one of the events listed in the timeline (source 4.26) or mentioned in the text, and describe its significance. (P1.1)

Change and continuity over time

P2.1

3. Collect newspaper articles or download material from Internet news sites over a month that relate to the Arab–Israeli conflict. From these, identify issues that relate back to the areas covered in this chapter and write an article that could act as a historical introduction to this set of cuttings. (P2.1) 4. Over the last 200 years, there have been many situations in the world where two groups of people claim ownership of a particular territory. Choose one of these, describe it briefly and highlight the difference and similarities between it and the Arab–Israeli conflict.

The process of historical inquiry

P3.1, P3.5

5. Both Arab Palestinians and Jews have used terrorism as part of their struggle. Research two examples of terrorism carried out by each group and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of terrorism as a way of trying to achieve a goal. (P3.1, P3.4)

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947

83

6. From an Internet search, locate two more sources — one an illustration and one a document — that could have been used in this chapter. Give a title to each source and make up at least one question for each source to highlight its significance. (P3.2, P3.3) 7. Investigate one of the following areas (P3.1–P3.3) W the part played by the United States in the creation of Israel W the form of government in Israel W the strengths and weaknesses of the British mandate period up to 1940.

Communicating an understanding of history

P4.1, P4.2

8. Form teams to research and debate the following topics. (a) That the state of Israel would not have existed in Palestine if the Holocaust had not taken place. (b) That Arab and Jew should be able to co-exist in Palestine. (c) That the conflict today can be traced back to the contradictory features of the British mandate. (d) That the Arabs would have been better off accepting the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947. Source 4.26 Timeline of key events, 1880–1948

1881 1883 1889 1891 1894 1897 1900 1914 1914–18 1915–16 1916 1917 1920 1923 1929 1933 1937 1939 1936–39 1939–45 1946 1947 1948

84

Retrospective

Russia; Pogroms against Jews follow assassination of Tsar Alexander II Egypt a British Protectorate French company building Panama Canal goes bankrupt; Jewish financiers blamed ‘Young Turk’ movement for reform in Ottoman empire France: Captain Dreyfus, Jewish army officer, arrested. Anti-Semitism grows. Theodor Herzl organises First Zionist Conference 50 000 Jews in Palestine in population of 600 000 Ottoman empire allies with Germany World War I McMahon–Hussein correspondence Sykes–Picot agreement to divide Palestine between Britain, France and Russia Balfour Declaration Britain given a mandate over Palestine British Mandate comes into effect Wailing Wall riots Hitler in power in Germany. Anti-Semitic laws Peel Commission, two-state solution British White Paper Palestinian Arab rebellion World War II; Shoah (Holocaust) in German-occupied Europe April: UN Special Commission on Palestine July: Jewish terrorists blow up King David Hotel July: Jewish immigrants on Exodus turned away from Palestine November: UN General Assembly votes for partition January–April: Arab–Jewish conflict May: British withdrawal; State of Israel proclaimed

5

KEY CONCEPTS Key concepts relevant to this chapter are: W communism W decolonisation W democracy W imperialism W nationalism W racism W self-determination W terrorism

Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 The areas of focus of this case study are: W W W W

The impact of French imperialism on Indochina The rise of Vietnamese nationalism and war against the French The growth of Vietnamese nationalism/communism The defeat of France

KEY DATES 1850s T France

gains control of Indochina 1930

T February

Ho Chi Minh establishes the ICP

1941 T Japan occupies French Indochina T Founding of Viet Minh 1943 T Viet Minh guerrilla warfare against Japanese and French 1945 T August

Viet Minh takes control of Hanoi and Saigon T 2 September Ho Chi Minh proclaims Vietnamese independence T October Return of the French 1946 Indochinese War against France begins

T First

1954 T 7 May Viet Minh defeat French at Dien Bien Phu T July Geneva Accords on future of Indochina

Source 5 .1 A photograph of the main street of Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1940, when Indochina was under French rule

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

85

Introduction imperialism W the practice of increasing a nation’s power by taking control of other nations and their resources colony W land settled and ruled by a foreign power which exploits the colony’s people and resources while maintaining a distinction between the ruling nation and the colonial people it views as inferior

At the beginning of the twentieth century most areas of the world were under the control or influence of foreign powers (see the map in source 10.10, page 188). These powers enjoyed the benefits of imperialism — the exploitation of a colony and its resources for the benefit of the power that controlled it. In the second half of the twentieth century, many peoples fought political and military battles to gain independence from colonial rule. In Indochina, the peoples of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam fought to gain independence from French rule and establish themselves as independent nations. The road to independence was a long and hard-fought one that, in Vietnam, took thirty years.

The impact of French imperialism on Indochina In the late nineteenth century, France was one of the world’s great powers. It controlled land in Africa, South America and the three countries that made up the Indochinese Union or French Indochina — Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Control of these imperial possessions helped increase France’s power, wealth and influence. France gained control of Indochina (an area almost one and a half times the size of France itself) from the late 1850s onwards. In Vietnam, France created three administrative areas — Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina. This undermined the country’s sense of unity as did the French policy of giving each area a different status in relation to France: W A French governor ruled Cochinchina as part of France and its political representatives could hold seats in the National Assembly in Paris. The Vietnamese who lived in Cochinchina could gain French citizenship. W Those living in Annam and Tonkin could not gain French citizenship and these territories, officially under French ‘protection’, were not considered part of France. In theory these areas remained under the rule of local leaders; in reality, these leaders were not free to act independently of France. In Laos and Cambodia, France exercised its control through the emperors who continued the day-to-day rule of their countries. France influenced their decision making and, either directly or indirectly, the French governor ruled all of Indochina. Source 5.2 A nineteenth-century illustration depicting French forces conquering Hanoi SOURCE QUESTION

What impression does the source 5.2 illustration give of the French troops’ method of overcoming the Indochinese people of Hanoi?

86

Retrospective

Source 5.3 Map showing the stages by which France gained control of Indochina and the differing nature of control within Indochina’s five main administrative areas

CHINA TONKIN 1884

BURMA

TONKIN • French control from 1884 • Indirect French rule through Vietnamese emperor • France had to approve all decisions • Not considered part of France so no French citizenship for Vietnamese • Hanoi — an important centre of administration

Hanoi

LAOS 1893 N

LAOS • French control from 1893 • Emperor continued day-to-day rule THAILAND

SOURCE QUESTIONS

Use source 5.3 to answer the following. 1. Identify the years CAMBODIA in which France took • French control from 1863 • Emperor continued control of the different day-to-day rule areas of Indochina. 2. What advantages would France have gained 200 0 400 km by dividing Indochina into five areas?

ANNAM 1884

CAMBODIA 1863

Saigon COCHINCHINA 1862

ANNAM • French control from 1884 • Indirect French rule through Vietnamese emperor • France had to approve all decisions • Not considered part of France so no French citizenship for Vietnamese

COCHINCHINA • French control from 1862 • Direct rule from France through French governor • Considered part of France so Vietnamese here could have French citizenship and representation in the French National assembly • Saigon — known as ‘the Paris of the Orient’

French attitudes and influence in Indochina racism W one group’s view that its race is superior to that of another group

France, like most empire builders, believed that the ‘natives’ in its colonies were inferior and in need of contact with French culture to overcome their ‘backwardness’. This racism was a component of the spread of French civilisation in Indochina, France’s mission civilisatrice, which resulted in weakening traditional Indochinese sources of authority. For example: W French culture and European subjects were the main influences on the education system. W France encouraged upper-class Indochinese to adopt French cultural practices, values and attitudes. W French-educated officials took control of village communities and undermined their traditional social and economic structures.

Source 5.4 Photograph showing a peasant carrying a French official along a stream

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

87

Source 5.5 A French woman in Indochina describing a meeting with a local Annamese man

He gave his hand to my husband and then to me. It was the first time I had shaken hands with an Annamese, and a shudder went through me when I felt in my own the uncanny dry-skinned fingers with their long nails. This simple and natural action brought home to me more strongly than ever the natural antipathy that exists between white and yellow races. In theory, I do not mind shaking hands with any of the mandarins who will do me that honour, but I can never do so without this consciousness. Extract from G. Vassal, On and Off Duty in Annam, Heinemann, London, 1910, p. 109.

Source 5.6 Photographs of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (left) and Hanoi Cathedral in Vietnam (right)

SOURCE QUESTION

What do sources 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6 indicate about the impact of French colonisation on Vietnamese life and culture?

self-determination W a people’s right to exercise independent control of its own destiny

88

Retrospective

Indochinese colonies provided many opportunities for France to increase its wealth and prestige. Indochina produced significant quantities of coal, corn, rice, rubber, silk, tin and zinc and its location was useful for building up France’s overland trade with China. France used many of Indochina’s 25 million people as a cheap labour force in mines, factories and rice fields and on rubber plantations. The establishment of monopoly control of the alcohol, salt and opium trades also enhanced France’s profits, with France demanding that the Montagnards (highland dwellers) achieve set production targets and that villagers in the lowlands achieve French-designated buying targets. The needs of the French colonists took priority over the development of Indochina for the benefit of its own people, who therefore could not exercise self-determination. The people who grew the rice had little access to it as a food source. The work of the peasants financed the building of canals, roads, railway lines and port facilities to service French trading opportunities and the cost of the French administration of Indochina. The peasants remained poor under the burden of high taxes, high rents and debts to moneylenders.

Indochinese labourers bore the cost of the Michelin tyre company’s reliance on Indochinese rubber supplies. In the period 1917–44, nearly 30 per cent of the workers on one rubber plantation died from diseases caused by malnutrition. In Vietnam, the French gave land grants to French settlers and also sold large areas of land to wealthy Vietnamese. By the late 1930s, these landlords controlled 45 per cent of the rice-growing areas in Cochinchina while 60 per cent of the peasantry had no land at all. The French Security Service protected French political and economic interests. Frenchmen held most of the key government and public service positions; the Indochinese who did achieve significant positions received a fraction of the wages paid to their French counterparts.

The rise of Vietnamese nationalism and ‘war’ against the French guerrillas W locals who fight the enemy by engaging in surprise attacks on enemy facilities, troops and supply routes

nationalism W sense of a national identity developed from belonging to a group sharing common cultural, linguistic and historical ties, and the desire to work with others to achieve common goals related to these, at times regardless of how this might affect other countries

In all countries of Indochina, the native population had fought from the very beginning against French rule of its territory. In Vietnam, guerrillas fought to prevent both the forceful takeover of their land and the loss of their heritage. Vietnamese peasants protested against changed patterns of work and land ownership. Some upper-class Vietnamese joined and provided leadership for armed peasant revolts and scholar patriots provided ongoing encouragement of a concept of Vietnamese national identity. The French responded with violence and attempts to suppress radical thought. This further encouraged the growth of nationalism and resistance to French rule. The French also responded by providing privileges to upper-class Vietnamese in order to win their loyalty and increase the gap between them and those of lower classes. Source 5.7 Photograph of a group of Vietnamese guerrillas in the late nineteenth century

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

89

Early twentieth century nationalism

terrorism W the use of violence to gain political change

democracy W government by elected representatives of the people quoc ngu W the romanised script, used for the Vietnamese language. It replaced the Chinese script.

Many educated Vietnamese refused to cooperate with the French. Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh were two of the most prominent activists of this anti-French group. In the early twentieth century, Phan Boi Chau tried to gain support for a rebellion against the French and create the basis of a leadership group to replace them. In the period 1904–12, he helped create three different nationalist and pro-independence organisations: the Duy Tan Hoi (Reformation Society) in 1904; the Viet Nam Cong Hien Hoi (Vietnam Public Offering Society) in 1907; and the Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi (Vietnam Restoration Society) in 1912. Phan Boi Chau encouraged his followers to think of themselves as Vietnamese and forget the divisive French terms (Annamese, Cochinchinese and Tonkinese) for people from the different areas of the country. He aimed to gain Vietnamese independence from French rule and establish a democratic republic. Phan Boi Chau believed that the French had to be forced out of Vietnam. His use of terrorism gained him a four-year prison term in 1914. He lived in exile in China for the next eight years and then under house arrest back in Vietnam (after the French kidnapped him to force his return) until his death in 1940. Phan Chu Trinh was another important pro-independence leader. He supported some of the ideas of the eighteenth-century French philosophers, Montesquieu and Rousseau, and believed that French colonial government could evolve peacefully towards democracy. He was one of many educated Vietnamese whom the French imprisoned at Poulo Condore, an island which the French used for political prisoners. The use of quoc ngu (the national script) in literature, journals and pamphlets helped towards the creation of a national rather than a regional identity within Vietnam. The printing business established by Nguyen Van Vinh (1882–1936) in Hanoi in 1907 facilitated the acceptance of this national language which, in 1918, officially replaced the Chinese script. The use of quoc ngu became the main means of spreading views critical of France’s influence in Vietnam and making them accessible to educated Vietnamese. It also promoted a national identity through promotion of a Vietnamese literary culture.

Nationalism between the wars Resistance grew stronger during and after World War I. This was due to the influence of nationalism that arose from French demands on Vietnam during the war. France took 50 000 soldiers and 50 000 workers to serve in Europe and significantly increased local taxes to help subsidise the French war effort. In the Thai Nguyen province of north Vietnam, Vietnamese soldiers armed prisoners and locals in an uprising against French authority. As with many other revolts at that time, the French regained control and either killed or imprisoned those who had fought against them. The education that many wealthy Vietnamese experienced in France itself also encouraged a greater understanding of and commitment to nationalist ideas and the ideals of liberté, égalité and fraternité, which had inspired the French people’s own struggles against oppression and injustice (see page 2).

90

Retrospective

communism W a political ideology and economic system, developed by Karl Marx (1818–1883), in which people share equally the ownership of their society’s resources, contribute to its work according to their abilities, and are provided for according to their needs. Its main ideas include the abolition of private ownership of property; government control of the nation’s resources; and the elimination of classes.

By 1930, two radical revolutionary groups had emerged to challenge French authority: W the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDD), which never recovered from the failure of its 1930 attempt to take power W the more successful Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), founded by Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) in 1930. Ho Chi Minh’s goal of independence from French rule reflected both a strong communist and a nationalist outlook as was evident in his speech announcing the formation of the ICP in 1930 (see source 5.8). This speech reflected his commitment to communism as the framework for the achievement of nationalist goals. Source 5.8 Extract from Ho Chi Minh’s speech in February 1930 announcing the formation of the ICP

Workers, peasants, soldiers, youth, pupils! Oppressed and exploited compatriots! The Communist Party of Indochina is founded. It is the party of the working class. It will help the proletarian class lead the revolution in order to struggle for all the oppressed and exploited people. From now on we must join the Party, help it and follow it in order to implement the following slogans: 1. To overthrow French imperialism, feudalism, and the reactionary Vietnamese capitalist class. 2. To make Indochina completely independent. 3. To establish a worker–peasant and soldier government. 4. To confiscate the banks and other enterprises belonging to the imperialists and put them under the control of the worker–peasant and soldier government. 5. To confiscate all of the plantations and property belonging to the imperialists and the Vietnamese reactionary capitalist class and distribute them to poor peasants. 6. To implement the eight hour working day. 7. To abolish public loans and poll tax. To waive unjust taxes hitting the poor people. 8. To bring back all freedom to the masses. 9. To carry out universal education. 10. To implement equality between man and woman. Ho Chi Minh, quoted in I. Sutherland, Conflict in Indo China, Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, 1990, p. 18.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Who is the audience for the speech in source 5.8? 2. Which of Ho Chi Minh’s slogans are linked to: (a) the nationalist goal of independence (b) the communist goal of improving the lives of working-class people? 3. What do your answers to these questions indicate about which ideology — communism or nationalism — played the more significant role in the ICP at this time?

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

91

The ICP began to build support for its goal of independence and, at the same time, provide the framework for an alternative to French rule. When the Great Depression of the 1930s led to the collapse of world markets for rubber and rice, this resulted in famine inside Vietnam. The economic hardships of the Depression provided additional reasons for the peasantry to support the ICP against the French. During the 1930s, the ICP led demonstrations against low pay, high salt prices and other aspects of French exploitation of the Vietnamese people. The French imprisoned a number of the party’s leaders and the party itself continued its efforts in less obvious ways. Over the next decade, the ICP policy for Vietnam developed into one placing a stronger influence on nationalism and independence and linked to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of organisation. Ho Chi Minh argued that these goals could best be achieved through establishing broadly based national opposition to the French and the use of communist political ideology. Ho Chi Minh’s ideas differed from those of mainstream Russian communists in two ways: 1. He placed his main emphasis on the achievement of national independence, rather than on gaining equality for all people within Vietnam. 2. He believed that peasants rather than urban workers would be the main force for change.

The impact of World War II

Vichy government W French government headed by Marshall Pétain that cooperated with the Nazi government controlling the northern part of France

Viet Minh W a group incorporating Vietnamese nationalists who fought to gain independence from foreign control of Vietnam

decolonisation W the freeing of a colony from imperial rule and granting of self-government; in this context, the removal of French imperialist control over Indochina

92

Retrospective

The outbreak of World War II in September 1939 provided a real opportunity to end French control of Indochina. From early 1940 onwards, Nazi German forces controlled northern France and influenced the nominally neutral Vichy government that ruled southern France. The Vichy government lacked the strength to retain control of all of France’s overseas colonies. Japanese forces invaded French Indochina to gain access to its raw materials. Japan particularly wanted to prevent Vietnam from supplying Japan’s enemy — China — with essential materials. In September 1941, the Vichy government agreed to allow an occupying force of 35 000 Japanese soldiers into Indochina. The French remained the official rulers of Indochina by allowing the Japanese to take whatever of its resources they wanted for their war effort. These events increased Indochina’s hostility to both France and Japan and gave further encouragement to Vietnamese nationalism. They encouraged support for a resistance movement known as the Viet Minh (Revolutionary League for the Independence of Vietnam), which Ho Chi Minh founded in 1941. Opposition to French rule became more organised.

Strategies of the Viet Minh The Viet Minh was a coalition of nationalist groups largely influenced by its ICP leadership. Its goal was Vietnamese independence from foreign rule, or decolonisation, and its membership included both nationalists and communists. Many observers viewed Ho Chi Minh primarily as a nationalist fighting for Vietnamese liberation rather than as a communist. His closest colleagues were Pham Van Dong and Vo Nguyen Giap.

Source 5.9 Extract from a letter written in June 1941 by Ho Chi Minh at the time of the founding of the Revolutionary League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh)

Elders! Prominent personalities! Intellectuals, peasants, workers, traders, and soldiers! Dear compatriots! Since the French were defeated by the Germans, their forces have been completely disintegrated. However, with regard to our people, they continue to plunder us pitilessly, suck all our blood, and carry out a barbarous policy of all-out terrorism and massacre. Concerning their foreign policy . . . they heartlessly offer our interests to Japan. As a result, our people suffer under a double yoke: they serve not only as buffaloes and horses to the French invaders but also as slaves to the Japanese plunderers . . . Rich people, soldiers, workers, peasants, intellectuals, employees, traders, youth, and women who warmly love your country! At the present time national liberation is the most important problem. Let us unite together! As one in mind and strength we shall overthrow the Japanese and French and their jackals in order to save people from the situation between boiling water and burning heat. Dear compatriots! National salvation is the common cause to the whole of our people. Every Vietnamese must take part in it. He who has money will contribute his money, he who has strength will contribute his strength, he who has talent will contribute his talent. I pledge to use all my modest abilities to follow you, and am ready for the last sacrifice. Revolutionary fighters! . . . Unite with each other, unify your action to overthrow the Japanese and the French. Victory to Vietnam’s revolution! Victory to the World’s Revolution! Published in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works, Vol. 2, Hanoi, 1960–62, pp. 151–4, quoted in I. Sutherland, Conflict in Indo China, Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, 1990, pp. 20–21.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. To whom is the letter in source 5.9 addressed? What does this indicate about the types of people whose support the Viet Minh is seeking? 2. Which aspects of the letter reflect the communist goal of ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’? 3. What does Ho Chi Minh say to gain support for the cause of independence?

guerrilla warfare W method of warfare in which small groups engage in surprise attacks on enemy facilities, troops and supply routes

The Viet Minh succeeded in coordinating support for two key nationalist goals: W overthrowing Japanese control of Vietnam during World War II W preventing the return of the French. Giap, the military strategist, organised the Viet Minh into an army of 10 000 guerrilla fighters. They mounted an effective guerrilla warfare campaign against both the French and the Japanese in the period from 1943 to 1945. The Viet Minh fought in the jungles and operated in small groups, attacking enemy resources. The French responded with the arrest and killing of Viet Minh troops and the bombing of known Viet Minh areas. US military intelligence personnel assisted the Viet Minh and sympathised with their hostility to the harshness of French colonial rule.

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

93

The growth of Vietnamese nationalism/communism The Japanese were determined to maintain their use of Indochina’s resources. From March 1945, the Japanese began to disarm, imprison and kill French troops and officials and to intern all other French citizens. They tried to gain support from the Vietnamese people by offering to create a nominally independent Vietnam under the leadership of its Emperor, Bao Dai. However, World War II ended with the defeat of Japan in August 1945. This left two contenders for power inside Vietnam — the much weakened French and the Vietnamese. Between mid and late 1944, over two million peasants died of starvation in the Quang Tri province of northern Vietnam. By late 1945, between 15 and 20 per cent of the Vietnamese population had starved to death as a result of Japan’s plunder of the country’s resources. The threat of famine unified Vietnam in support of Viet Minh forces. People rallied in excitement and anticipation behind the slogan ‘Vietnam for the Vietnamese’. The Viet Minh took control of Hanoi on 17 August 1945, and Saigon and Cochinchina on 25 August 1945. Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnamese independence before a huge crowd in Hanoi on 2 September 1945. His declaration of independence came at the end of a war which the Allies had fought in the name of democracy and self-determination. Source 5.10 Photograph showing Ho Chi Minh declaring Vietnamese independence on 2 September 1945

SOURCE QUESTION

In what ways does this photo in source 5.10 express Vietnamese nationalism and self-determination?

94

Retrospective

Source 5.11 Extracts from Ho Chi Minh’s Declaration of Independence on 2 September 1945

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Which two famous documents are referred to in this source? Why did Ho Chi Minh refer to them? Visit the website for this book and click on the ‘Declarations’ weblinks for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii) for additional information on each of the famous documents. 2. What reasons does Ho Chi Minh put forward in source 5.11 to gain the support of other nations for the cause of Vietnamese independence? 3. Visit the website for this book and click on the ‘Vietnamese independence’ weblink for this chapter to find the full text of the Declaration. Identify additional reasons put forward in favour of Vietnamese independence.

‘All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’. This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free. The Declaration of the French Revolution . . . on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: ‘All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights.’ Those are undeniable truths. Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity . . . have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice . . . They have . . . wreck[ed] our national unity . . . They have built more prisons than schools . . . they have drowned our uprisings in rivers of blood . . . To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol . . . They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials . . . They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme poverty . . . In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese Fascists violated Indochina’s territory to establish new bases in their fight against the Allies, the French imperialists went down on their bended knees and handed over our country to them. Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double yoke of the French and the Japanese. Their sufferings and miseries increased . . . On March 9 [1945], the French troops were disarmed by the Japanese. The French colonialists either fled or surrendered . . . From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact ceased to be a French colony and had become a Japanese possession. After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole people rose to regain our national sovereignty and to found the Democratic Republic of Vietnam . . . The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor Bao Dai has abdicated. Our people have broken the chains which for nearly a century have fettered them and have won independence for the Fatherland . . . We are convinced that the Allied nations which . . . have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of nations, will not refuse to acknowledge the independence of Vietnam. A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than eighty years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against the Fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and independent . . . Published in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works, Vol. 3, Hanoi, 1960–62, pp. 17–21.

The French refused to accept this Declaration of Independence and, in October 1945, they returned to re-establish their control of Indochina. Ho Chi Minh travelled to France to try to negotiate a compromise and French and Viet Minh representatives met throughout 1946 in an attempt to prevent the outbreak of war. By December 1946, it was obvious that there would be no compromise. The Viet Minh engaged in terrorist attacks against French military installations and, in November 1946, the French shelled the port of Haiphong, killing 6000 Vietnamese in the process. This began the First Indochinese War.

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

95

Source 5.12 Photograph showing Ho Chi Minh putting forward his case for Vietnamese independence in 1946

SOURCE QUESTION

What impression does the photograph in source 5.12 create of the differences between the world of Ho Chi Minh and that of his French opponents? capitalism W an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and pursuit of business opportunities for the owner’s individual profits domino effect W the view, put forward by the US during the Cold War, that the ‘fall’ of one country to communism would be followed by the ‘fall’ of its neighbours. As a result, the US sought to ‘contain’ communism by military intervention in areas it considered under threat.

The war against the French

INDIA

BURMA

INDONESIA

THAILAND

C AMBOD

L AOS

VIE

KO

CH

IN

A

RE

A

TNA

M

IA

Source 5.13 A diagram illustrating the domino theory

MALAYA

The French government sought and eventually gained the support of the United States, which preferred French rule of Indochina to the extension of communist influence there. The United States feared the spread of communism, which it saw as a threat to democracy and to capitalism. The US was particularly concerned when communists gained control of China’s government in 1949. By the mid 1950s, the US government spoke of its concern for a domino effect (see source 5.13) whereby the ‘fall’ of one country to communism would quickly be followed by the ‘fall’ of its neighbours.

SOURCE QUESTION

Explain the message illustrated by the diagram in source 5.13.

96

Retrospective

Cold War W the period of political, economic and ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, from around 1945 to 1991. While the two nations did not engage in direct military conflict, they did supply troops, weaponry and finances to one another’s enemies.

The United States gave its support to France with the hope that France would grant more freedom to other Vietnamese political groups. The Viet Minh received support from the communist governments of China and the Soviet Union. Vietnam’s fight for independence became part of the conflict known as the Cold War. War continued for over seven more years. During this time, the French re-established their control of the major cities and coastal areas of Vietnam. Viet Minh guerrillas established their influence in the north, the Red River Delta and the countryside generally. Source 5.14 Extract from a 1946 interview with Ho Chi Minh in which he expressed his view of ‘the elephant and the tiger’

I said to him, ‘President Ho, how can you possibly make war against the French army?’ He replied: ‘Mr Schoenbrun, we have a secret weapon . . . Don’t smile when I tell you this. Our secret weapon is nationalism. To have nationhood, which is a sign of maturity, is greater than any weapons in the world.’ He said it would be a war between an elephant and a tiger. ‘If the tiger ever stands still, or is trapped out into the open, the mighty elephant of France will crush him. However, the tiger of Indo-China is going to hide in the jungle by day. He will steal out at night and he will leap upon the back of the elephant and tear great chunks out of the elephant’s hide — and slowly the elephant will bleed to death. It may take three years, it may take five, it may take ten, but that will be the war in Indo-China.’ Quote from David Schoenbrun’s interview with Ho Chi Minh in Paris, 1946.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Who are the ‘elephant’ and ‘tiger’ that Ho Chi Minh refers to in source 5.14? 2. What does source 5.14 indicate about the advantages the Viet Minh had over its opponents? Source 5.15 A photograph of the Viet Minh General Vo Nguyen Giap (in the white suit) in 1952 inspecting troops of the People’s Army

SOURCE QUESTION

What might have been the photographer’s intention in taking the photograph in source 5.15?

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

97

Source 5.16 A photograph taken in December 1953 showing the capture of a Viet Minh soldier as he emerges from an underground hideout

SOURCE QUESTION

From the photograph in source 5.16, identify the methods of warfare used by the Viet Minh against the French.

The defeat of France General Navarre was the French military leader in Vietnam. General Vo Nguyen Giap was the Viet Minh’s military leader. Navarre aimed to encourage Giap to come into open battle against the French. To achieve this, Navarre strengthened the French army base at Dien Bien Phu, a town located on the main supply route between Vietnam and Laos. He believed that Giap would be forced to attack Dien Bien Phu to protect Viet Minh access to food supplies in this area. Navarre believed his troops would be able to successfully defend their base and seriously weaken the Viet Minh. Giap believed an attack on Dien Bien Phu could result in a major defeat for the French in Indochina.

The elephant and the tiger: 55 days at Dien Bien Phu Navarre did not take into account the Viet Minh’s determination and resourcefulness. General Giap organised as many as 20 000 peasants to move on foot, by bicycle or with carts transporting supplies through the jungle from the Viet Minh base 120 kilometres away. By January 1954, about 40 000 Viet Minh troops and 200 heavy artillery guns were positioned in the mountains that encircled the valley of Dien Bien Phu and the 15 000 French troops stationed there.

98

Retrospective

Source 5.17 A member of the Viet Minh describing the efforts taken to prepare for battle

We had to cross mountains and jungles, marching at night and sleeping by day to avoid enemy bombing. We sometimes slept in foxholes, or just by the trail. We each carried a rifle, ammunition, and hand grenades, and our packs contained a blanket, a mosquito net, and a change of clothes. We each had a week’s supply of rice, which we refilled at depots along the way. We ate greens and bamboo shoots that we picked in the jungle, and occasionally villagers would give us a bit of meat. I’d been in the Vietminh for nine years by then, and I was accustomed to it. Quoted in Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1986, p. 191.

SOURCE QUESTION

What does source 5.17 indicate about the attitudes and experiences of the Viet Minh forces before Dien Bien Phu? In mid March 1954, the Viet Minh began their artillery fire on the French below, inflicting serious damage to the airstrip that provided the only link with the French supply base at Hanoi. Additional troops began digging tunnels to bring them closer to the French fortifications. Continued artillery bombardment over the next few weeks reduced the area under French control. Fog and the muddied ground made it increasingly difficult for the French to either drop fresh supplies into the area or transport the wounded out. On 1 May 1954, the Viet Minh launched a massive assault on all areas still under French control. By 7 May, the Viet Minh had gained control of Dien Bien Phu and the French surrendered. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the culmination of the nine-year war between France and Vietnam that came to be known as the ‘First Indochinese War’. The battle cost France over 7000 in casualties and 11 000 taken prisoner and it signified France’s failure to re-establish either political or military control over Indochina. The Viet Minh had suffered 8000 dead and 12 000 wounded. They had gained significant bargaining power at the Geneva Conference, which was due to address the issue of the future of Indochina. Source 5.18 Photograph from July 1954 showing French and Vietnamese prisoners after the battle of Dien Bien Phu, being led from the area under the guard of communist Viet Minh troops

SOURCE QUESTION

Describe what is happening in source 5.18 and the significance of this for the conflict in Indochina.

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

99

1954 — The Geneva Conference USSR W the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Soviet Union

Source 5.19 Extract from the Geneva Conference declaration on Indochina, July 1954

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What military provisions are outlined in source 5.19? What do you think was their purpose? 2. What was the demarcation line and why was it ‘provisional’? 3. What principles were supposed to underpin ‘the settlement of [Vietnam’s] political problems’? 4. What were the plans for elections in Vietnam?

100

Retrospective

From 26 April 1954, representatives of France, the USSR and the United States met in Geneva, Switzerland. Their first priority was to solve the problems that had arisen from the war between North and South Korea (1950–53). On 8 May, they began discussions on the future of Indochina that concluded with a document known as the Geneva Accords. The following were the most significant aspects of the Geneva Accords: W France must grant complete independence to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. W There would be a temporary division of Vietnam into two sectors along the 17th parallel of latitude. W A demilitarised zone would separate North and South Vietnam and no foreign bases were allowed within any area of Indochina. W Residents of Vietnam had 300 days to decide whether they wished to stay in either the North or South or move to the other sector. W Free democratic elections for a government for a united Vietnam were scheduled for July 1956. An International Control Commission would supervise the elections.

The conference expresses satisfaction at the ending of hostilities in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam: the Conference expresses its conviction that the execution of the provisions set out in the present Declaration and in the Agreements on the cessation of hostilities will permit Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam henceforth to play their part in full independence and sovereignty, in the peaceful community of nations. The Conference takes note of the clauses in the Agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Vietnam prohibiting the introduction into Vietnam of foreign troops and military personnel as well as all kinds of arms and munitions . . . . . . No military base under the control of a foreign State may be established in the regrouping zones of the two parties, the latter having the obligation to see that the zones allotted to them shall not constitute part of any military alliance and shall not be utilised for the resumption of hostilities or in the service of an aggressive policy. The Conference recognizes that the essential purpose of the Agreement relating to Vietnam is to settle military questions with a view to ending hostilities and that the military demarcation line is provisional and should not, in any way, be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary. The Conference declares that, so far as Vietnam is concerned, the settlement of political problems, effected on the basis of respect for principles of independence, unity and territorial integrity, shall permit the Vietnamese people to enjoy the fundamental freedoms, guaranteed by democratic institutions established as a result of free general elections by secret ballot. In order to ensure that sufficient progress in the restoration of peace has been made and that all the necessary conditions obtain for free expression of the national will, general elections shall be held in July, 1956 under the supervision of an international commission. From Documents Related to the Implementation of the Geneva Agreement Concerning Viet-Nam, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hanoi, 1956, pp. 181–183, quoted in J. Harpur, World Without End, 2nd ed., Longman, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 42–43.

Source 5.20 Map showing the division of Vietnam following the 1954 Geneva Conference and the allegiances of each of its governments

N

0

200

400 km

superpowers W the term used in the second half of the twentieth century to describe the political and military power of nations like the United States and the Soviet Union.

The North was to be known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and led by Ho Chi Minh. In the south, the government of the Republic of Vietnam continued to be led by French-appointed Emperor Bao Dai. In 1955, Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem took over the presidency. Diem was an ardent nationalist supported by the United States government. The Geneva Accords officially recognised the defeat of France in Indochina. In Vietnam, neither side was satNORTH VIETNAM isfied with the result. The Viet Communist controlled, led by Ho Chi Minh and Minh had been denied the supported by China and unified Vietnam for which it the Soviet Union had been fighting. The United States and the US-backed government of South Vietnam 17th PARALLEL refused to sign the Accords. 17° North latitude – an They were unwilling to allow artificial division between an election that might result North and South to remain until the 1956 elections in a communist-led Vietnam. In this sense, the Geneva Accords created a temporary lull in what was ultimately SOUTH VIETNAM to be a long-term struggle for Under the leadership the control of Vietnam. of Ngo Dinh Diem and supported by the In 1954, the countries of United States Indochina gained independence from France. In the decades that followed, they faced a new battle as the world’s superpowers played out the Cold War on their lands and among their peoples. This battle came to be known as the Vietnam War or, more accurately, the Second Indochina War. This war, in which the United States fought to prevent the spread of communism, produced huge death and casualty rates, brutal atrocities, widespread destruction of property and contamination of farming land and thousands of refugees.

Meeting objectives and outcomes P1.1 and P1.2

Key features, issues, individuals and events

1. Complete the following table by identifying one individual, one group and one event that influenced the nature of French–Indochinese relations in the period 1945–54. (P1.1) Key features

Name/Date(s)

Nature/Action

Influence

Significance

Individual Group Event

2. Essay topic: Explain the key features of French imperialism in Indochina and its impact on the growth of nationalism. (P1.2)

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954

101

Change and continuity over time

P2.1

3. Make a time chart of forces and events between 1945 and 1954 that helped to end French control of Vietnam. Rank these in order of importance. Are there any that you would consider essential? Provide details to support the main points in your answer. (P2.1) 4. Discussion issue: Explain why Vietnam was able to achieve independence from France in 1954 when it had not been able to do so in 1945. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry

P3.1– P3.5

5. View the documentary ‘The Battle for Dien Bien Phu’ and use it as a historical source to answer the following questions. (a) Identify and record 3–5 questions that you think are important for understanding the reasons for the defeat of France in Vietnam. Use these to guide your viewing of the documentary. (P3.1) (b) Write each of your questions at the top of a separate A4 page and make relevant notes under each question as you view the documentary. Your notes should identify the main point being made and the evidence provided to support it. Use a separate page to record any additional notes you think are helpful. (P3.2) (c) Identify and discuss in small groups or as a class: W the information the documentary provides (such as its nature, focus, emphasis, omissions) (P3.4) W the perspective and interpretation of the documentary maker (sympathetic? critical? biased? limited? narrow? comprehensive? . . . ) (P3.4) W the usefulness and reliability of the documentary for a historian studying the reasons for the defeat of France in Vietnam. (P3.3) (d) Write two A4 pages in response to the following: Analyse the usefulness and reliability of the documentary ‘The Battle for Dien Bien Phu’ for a historian studying the reasons for the defeat of France in Vietnam. (P3.2, P3.3, P3.4 and P3.5)

Communicating an understanding of history

P4.1 and P4.2

6. It is late 1954. You are a reporter writing a three-page report, in preparation for a radio program, on the origins, actions and outcomes of the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Your report should be appropriate for broadcast to an audience of Viet Minh sympathisers. It should identify the goals of the participants and their tactics. In commenting on the outcome of the battle, your report should consider both its immediate and its likely long-term significance for the participants and other interested groups. Your report should incorporate appropriate use of relevant historical terms and concepts. (P4.1 and P4.2)

102

Retrospective

6

Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

KEY CONCEPTS

Key concepts relevant to this chapter are: W communism W decolonisation W imperialism W nationalism W racism W self-determination KEY DATES 1945 drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki T Cold War begins T US

The areas of focus of this case study are: W

W

W

W

Geographic, ideological and political motives for the testing of nuclear weapons by western powers in the Pacific The use of the Marshall Islands, Mururoa Atoll and Australia for nuclear testing The role, responsibility and compliance of local authorities and governments concerning the testing of nuclear devices Impact of nuclear fallout on the indigenous peoples and ex-service people involved

1946 Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands

T US

1947 T July US becomes the administering authority of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands 1952 T Britain

detonates first nuclear device on Monte Bello Island, off Western Australia 1954 Operation Castle Bravo in Marshall Islands

T US

1956–57 T Britain’s Operation Buffalo, nuclear testing at Maralinga, South Australia 1963 T United

States, Russia and Britain agree to ban nuclear testing

Source 6.1 The mushroom cloud from an American atomic test over the Marshall Islands as seen from Bikini Atoll on 25 July 1946

1966 First atomic test by France at Mururoa Atoll, French Polynesia

1968 French detonate H-bomb, Canopus, over Fangataufa

1996 June France ends nuclear testing in the Pacific

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

103

Introduction Cold War W the period of political, economic and ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union from around 1945–91

World War II (1939–45) moved like a cyclone through Europe and through the islands of the Pacific. In the aftermath came the intense rivalry of the Cold War. With the United States’ detonation of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the world moved into the era of the ‘arms race’. On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union became the second nation in the world to explode a nuclear bomb. Three years later, Britain became a nuclear power. The race to produce bigger and more deadly missiles with increased accuracy drove the defence policies of world powers. They believed nuclear capability would protect their nations and guarantee peace and safety. The rivalry between the US and the USSR to gain supremacy in nuclear weapons technology brought them to the brink of nuclear war. The early pioneering work in nuclear science and radioactivity was undertaken in France at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Polish-French physicist and chemist, Madame Marie Curie. Madame Curie’s assistant was a young chemist, Bertrand Goldschmidt, who later became the only Frenchman to work on America’s development of the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project) during World War II. After the war, Goldschmidt led the team that developed nuclear energy and weapons capabilities. The first nuclear weapon was the atomic bomb; the next weapon was the hydrogen bomb, nearly a thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Despite the dangers that nuclear weapons brought to the world, the deep distrust between the US and the USSR destroyed any international plans to control nuclear weapons’ production during the 1950s. In the climate of the Cold War, the world powers believed their weapons had to be tested and the United States, France and Britain chose the Pacific for their testing sites.

Geographic, ideological and political motives for the testing of nuclear weapons by western powers in the Pacific The Pacific Ocean covers nearly one-third of the Earth’s surface and is home to more than five million Pacific Islanders. Over 60 000 years ago, communities of people who hunted and gathered food crossed the sea channel of eastern Indonesia to settle in Australia and New Guinea. The remote islands of the Pacific were settled when people had developed the art of agriculture, canoe construction and navigation. Around 4000 years ago, the first signs of human settlement appeared in the islands east of the Solomons. Over the next 2000 years, the populations on hundreds of islands throughout the Pacific developed their own communities and cultures. European interest in the area stirred in 1519 when the Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand Magellan, sailed through the strait at the tip of South America and into a sea so calm that he named it the Pacific Ocean, from the Latin pax meaning ‘peace’. European exploration was motivated by scientific curiosity and an increasing realisation that the vast ocean and its remote islands could contain exploitable resources.

104

Retrospective

Hiroshima Nagasaki

J

A

P

P

A

A

C

I

F

I

C

O HA W AI I A

Tropic of Cancer

N I SL AN

A

TAIWAN

M I C R O N

VANUATU

I K

E

I

R

I

B

A

T I PHOENIX ISLANDS

TUVALU

S

I

FIJI

A

Emu

Norfolk Island (Aust.)

Hendersen Island (U.K.) Pitcairn Island (U.K.)

Kermadec Islands (N.Z.)

Tasmania 0

500

N

NEW ZEALAND

P

O

Maralinga

MARQUESAS ISLANDS

Tua mo COOK tu SOCIETY Ar (U.S.A.) I S L A N D S ch TONGA ipe NIUE ISLANDS Tahiti la French Polynesia Mururoa (France) Atoll AU ISLASTRAL NDS

L

A U S T R A L I A

American Wallis SAMOA Samoa Islands

Christmas

go

New Caledonia (France)

Tropic of Capricorn

E

DS

E L A N

LIN

AN

M

Monte Bello Islands

I

L IS

EAST TIMOR

S

SOLOMON ISLANDS

NEW GUINEA

.)

S

E

N AU R U

PA P UA I N D O N E S I A

L I SL Bikini Atoll A

A

MALAYSIA Equator

N

Johnston Atoll (U.S.A.)

HAL

FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA

PA L AU

.A

A

DS

BRUNEI

E

N

Guam (U.S.A.) CAROL ISLANDINE S

MARS

DS ( U. S

E

PHILIPPINES

Y

NORTHERN MARIANAS

C

N

CHINA

N

Source 6.2 Map of Australia and the modern island nations of the Pacific Ocean, showing sites of nuclear testing; (inset) part of a typical coral atoll in the Pacific

1000 1500 2000 km

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Look at the map of the Pacific Islands in source 6.2. Suggest why human settlement of the islands extended over thousands of years. 2. What motivated the world powers to decide on the Pacific region as a suitable location for: (a) colonisation (b) nuclear testing?

decolonisation W the freeing of a colony from imperial rule and granting of self-government

For 400 years, the indigenous people of the Pacific lived under the flags of various western nations. By the middle of the twentieth century, the process of decolonisation, bringing independence to European colonies across the globe, was well underway. In the Pacific Islands, decolonisation had barely begun. The low population density of the Pacific Islands meant that the indigenous communities could do little to assert their independence against powerful nations with their policies of nuclear colonialism. The European and North American news media largely ignored the plight of the Pacific communities. The people of the Pacific had a small voice in global politics. Three months after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US government made the decision to develop their future nuclear testing program in Micronesia. America had entered World War II when the Japanese launched their attack on Pearl Harbor from a base in Micronesia. Later, from an island in western Micronesia, the US loaded its nuclear weapons onto the aircraft Enola Gay, bound for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The end of World War II began the nuclear age. Before World War II, the US saw the vastness of the Pacific Ocean as a natural line of defence, but Japan’s surprise attack ended this security. There was a change in US military policy, known as ‘forward defence’, which meant looking beyond American borders and moving American forces closer to a

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

105

potential enemy. With disarmament in Europe, the Pacific increasingly became the location where the superpowers competed for political and economic influence and military might. They maintained powerful military forces and installations, including capabilities to test missiles and simulate attack. War games were played out in the Pacific using nuclear-capable warships laden with aircraft, hazardous materials and thousands of soldiers. As the arms race continued, the Pacific Ocean provided an opportunity for the nuclear nations to do what was ‘too dangerous, too secret, or too unpopular’ to do anywhere else. SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Consider the impact on the Pacific Islands people of a nuclear test. Draw a mind map to show your ideas or list the impacts in a table under the headings: environmental, cultural, social, economic and political. 2. Why, according to source 6.3, did France act with ‘grim determination’ in relation to nuclear testing? 3. Visit the website for this book and click on the ‘Nuclear weapons’ weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii) to read more about the development of nuclear science and the testing activities of the world powers.

Source 6.3 Extracts from a description of a nuclear test

In the sterile language of nuclear science, an ‘experiment’ means blowing up a massive nuclear bomb . . . Since [the 1960s], France has conducted 192 such atmospheric and underground tests with grim determination — shared by soldiers and civilians alike — to ensure their nation never again suffers the invasions inflicted on it by two world wars . . . When a bomb is exploded, the heat it generates is greater than that of the sun. Several metres of rock surrounding the bomb instantly turn to vapour. For a radius of 100 metres the rock develops deep fissures. For 10–30 metres around the detonation point a cavity forms . . . This geological upheaval leaves the radioactive waste contained in molten lava . . . at the bottom of the cavity. A seismic wave . . . turns the lagoon of Mururoa to foam . . . For the nuclear scientists measuring the effects of the test, there is precious little time to take readings. The 650-tonne container which encases both the bomb and measuring equipment melts in milliseconds. All the readings have to be taken within one millionth of a second and be transmitted by fibre optic cable to barges filled with recording devices on the lagoon’s surface. Don Greenlees, ‘History of invasion drives experiments’, in The Australian, July 1995.

Use of the Marshall Islands by the United States for nuclear testing In 1885, Germany took possession of the Marshall Islands in Micronesia. In 1898, at the end of the Spanish–American War, the United States became a colonial power in the Pacific when it took control of the Philippines and, in Micronesia, the island of Guam. With World War II (1939–45), global conflict transformed Micronesia from a remote corner of the globe into a region of strategic importance.

Role and responsibility of the US government mandate W a responsibility granted to a nation, by an official body, to administer the government and affairs of a people in an underdeveloped nation or territory atolls W lagoons in the ocean, surrounded by coral reefs in a ring-like formation

106

Retrospective

Following the nuclear destruction of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the islands of Micronesia, formerly under Japanese mandate, became the possession of the United States. In July 1947, the US was sanctioned by the United Nations to become the administering authority of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (see source 6.4). As part of this territory, the Marshall Islands were under United States military occupation. The United States then chose the remote atolls of Micronesia as the site for their nuclear testing program.

Source 6.4 Extracts from the trusteeship agreement between the United States of America and the Security Council of the United Nations for the former Japanesemandated Pacific Islands

SOURCE QUESTIONS

Read source 6.4 and answer the following questions. 1. What did the United Nations give America responsibility for as the ‘administering authority of the trust territory’? 2. In ‘discharging its obligations’, America was expected to promote and foster areas of development. (a) What were these areas of development? (b) What conflict could there have been between responsibility for these areas of development and nuclear testing in the Pacific? 3. Refer to source 6.4 and outline how you think the United States would justify nuclear testing in the Pacific.

Article 1: The Territory of the Pacific Islands, consisting of the islands formerly held by Japan under mandate in accordance with Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, is hereby designated as a strategic area and placed under the trusteeship system established in the Charter of the United Nations. The Territory of the Pacific Islands is hereinafter referred to as the trust territory. Article 2: The United States of America is designated as the administering authority of the trust territory. Article 3: The administering authority shall have full powers of administration, legislation, and jurisdiction over the territory subject to the provisions of this agreement, and may apply to the trust territory, subject to any modifications which the administering authority may consider desirable such of the laws of the United States as it may deem appropriate to local conditions and requirements . . . Article 5: In discharging its obligations under Article 76(a) and Article 84, of the Charter, the administering authority shall ensure that the trust territory shall play its part, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, in the maintenance of international peace and security. To this end the administering authority shall be entitled: 1. to establish naval, military and air bases and to erect fortifications in the trust territory; 2. to station and employ armed forces in the territory; and 3. to make use of volunteer forces, facilities and assistance from the trust territory in carrying out the obligations towards the Security Council undertaken in this regard by the administering authority, as well as for the local defense and the maintenance of law and order within the trust territory. Article 6: In discharging its obligations under Article 76(b) of the Charter, the administering authority shall: 1. foster the development of such political institutions as are suited to the trust territory and shall promote the development of the inhabitants of the trust territory toward self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of the trust territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned . . . 2. promote the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants, and to this end shall regulate the use of natural resources; encourage the development of fisheries, agriculture, and industries; protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources; and improve the means of transportation and communication; 3. promote the social advancement of the inhabitants and to this end shall protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of all elements of the population without discrimination; protect the health of the inhabitants; control the traffic in arms and ammunition, opium and other dangerous drugs, and alcoholic and other spirituous beverages; and institute such other regulations as may be necessary to protect the inhabitants against social abuses; and 4. promote the educational advancement of the inhabitants and . . . facilitate the vocational and cultural advancement of the population . . . Article 7: In discharging its obligations under Article 76(c), of the Charter, the administering authority shall guarantee to the inhabitants of the trust territory freedom of conscience, and, subject only to the requirements of public order and security, freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; freedom of worship, and of religious teaching; and freedom of migration and movement . . . Extracts from the Congressional Joint Resolution, United States, 18 July 1947.

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

107

The Pacific Proving Grounds

fission W the splitting of the nucleus of a heavy atom to form the nuclei of lighter atoms

Source 6.5 On 25 July 1946, the underwater detonation known as ‘Baker’ released this massive condensation cloud of radioactive water. The white circle in which the old World War II ships are visible is the front of the shock wave.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Suggest what might have been the impact of this bomb on the area outside the shock wave. 2. What do you think were the long-term environmental effects on the many coral islets that made up the Marshall Islands? Source 6.6 In this photograph from January 1947, US sailors witnessing a nuclear test at Bikini Atoll from the deck of a ship are attempting to protect their eyes by shielding them behind their forearms.

SOURCE QUESTION

What protective measures were taken by the sailors in source 6.6 and how adequate do you think these measures were against radiation?

108

Retrospective

In 1946, the United States began nuclear testing in the Pacific, referring to the nuclear test sites as the ‘Pacific Proving Grounds’. The first site was Bikini Atoll, located on the northern fringe of the Marshall Islands. Operation Crossroads was America’s first series of nuclear tests after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On 1 July 1946, from an altitude of 158 metres, American scientists detonated a fission bomb over old World War II ships. On 25 July, a second bomb, ‘Baker’, was detonated underwater at a depth of 27 metres (see source 6.1, page 103, and source 6.5). A sheet of water one mile high engulfed Bikini Atoll. The World War II ships were eventually sunk because radioactivity levels were too high for decontamination.

Impact of nuclear fallout on the indigenous peoples Before Bikini Atoll became the sad symbol of nuclear testing in the Pacific it was home to a small community of Bikinians. The US military governor assured the leader of the Bikini Islands, King Juda, that the removal of his people from the islands was temporary and the community would be returned after the conclusion of the tests. The US authorities promised the people that the testing was for the ‘good of mankind and to end all wars’. When the people of Bikini were taken from their island home, the US navy burnt down the Bikinians’ remaining huts as preparations commenced for the biggest nuclear blast the US had undertaken. Source 6.7 A photograph showing some of the Bikini villagers with their belongings, preparing for their relocation to Rongerik Atoll in March 1946 SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Imagine you are either one of the children in source 6.7 or a local leader of the relocated Bikini Island community. You have the opportunity to announce your grievances to the world community through the United Nations. Identify what you believe is the impact of nuclear testing on your island community. 2. Create an imaginary dialogue between a Bikinian villager from source 6.7 and a US sailor from source 6.6. In the dialogue, explore the gulf between world politics and the needs and rights of small nations. thermonuclear W nuclear fusion capable of producing extremely high temperatures

The US authorities resettled the Bikinians on Rongerik Atoll, 206 kilometres east of Bikini. Rongerik was an uninhabited 1.68 square kilometre atoll. Marshall Islanders traditionally believed that Rongerik was haunted by the ‘Demon Girls of Ujae’. In this new location, the quality of the water and available food sources were poor. Even the species of fish that the people of Bikini were accustomed to fishing was no longer available to them. Food shortages led to malnutrition on Rongerik so the United States military moved the Bikinians to Kwajalein and finally Kili Island. Operation Castle Bravo, in 1954, was twice as powerful as the scientists had calculated and released the worst fallout exposure in the history of US nuclear testing. The effects of the wind on the day were also underestimated, resulting in fallout across the Marshall Islands and further contamination spread over 10 000 square kilometres of the Pacific region. The 15-megatonne thermonuclear giant was estimated to be one thousand times more powerful than the bomb that decimated Hiroshima. A fireball blazed 40 kilometres above Bikini, sucking up tonnes of debris then dumping the irradiated remains on the surrounding islands. Hundreds of people living on the nearby Rongelap Atoll were exposed to the direct radioactive fallout. Japanese fishermen on board their vessel, Lucky Dragon, also became ill from the effects of radiation poisoning. Three days after the Operation Castle Bravo test, the US authorities evacuated the people of Rongelap, forcing them to abandon their island, leave behind their homes and relocate to Kwajalein Island for urgent medical treatment.

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

109

Source 6.8 The mayor of Rongelap, John Anjain, describes the radioactive contamination spread by Operation Castle Bravo

Something began falling from the sky upon our island. It looked like ash from a fire. It fell on me, my wife and our infant son, Lekoj. It fell on the trees, and on the roofs of our houses . . . Some people put it in their mouths and tasted it . . . People walked in it, and the children played with it . . . Later on, in the early evening, it rained. The rain fell on the roofs of our houses. It washed away the ash. The water mixed with the ash which fell into our catchments. Men, women and children drank [it]. It didn’t taste like rainwater and it was dark yellow, sometimes black. But people drank it anyway . . . [the next day] many vomited and felt weak. Later, the hair of men, women and children began to fall out. A lot of people had burns on their skin. On the third day some ships came. Americans came on our island. They explained that we were in great danger because of the ash. They said, ‘If you don’t leave, you will all die’. Quoted in David Robie, Eyes of Fire: The Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, Lindon Publishing, Auckland, 1986, pp. 21–2.

Source 6.9 A photograph from 23 March 1954 showing a Japanese research team testing a fish caught in the region of Bikini Atoll for levels of radioactivity SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. In small groups, research the effects of contamination from radioactivity on the environment and on human beings. After completing your research, explain: (a) why the fish were being tested in source 6.9 (b) why the people described in source 6.8 became ill. 2. Put yourself in the position of John Anjain (source 6.8) and write a speech to the international community in which you express: (a) a viewpoint about the US role and responsibility in the Marshall Islands (b) the challenges faced by the people of Rongelap.

110

Retrospective

Three years later, the US military declared Rongelap Atoll free of radioactive contamination and suitable for resettlement. The islanders returned to their homes but continued to suffer. Many reports of cancer and birth defects followed in the years immediately after. The leader of the Rongelap community, John Anjain, appealed to the international community for help but the outside world largely ignored their plight. Thirty years later, the health statistics for the people of Rongelap Atoll reveal the full horror of their experience. Surgery to remove cancers had been performed on 77 per cent of the Rongelap people who had been children under 10 years of age on the day of Operation Castle Bravo.

Source 6.10 A photograph from November 1955 showing the environmental impact of nuclear testing as seen on the lagoon shore of Bikini Atoll

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Describe the changes (both visible and invisible) that the nuclear tests have made to the landscape shown in source 6.10. 2. Visit the website for this book and click on the Nuclear Claims Tribunal weblink for this chapter. Read the summary of the decision in the class action claim made by Bikini Islanders and discuss the main findings. By 1958, there had been 16 nuclear weapons tests over Bikini Atoll. After Bikini Atoll, the US testing shifted to Enewetak Atoll, then to Kiritimati (Christmas Island) and Johnston Atoll. The tests in these relatively uninhabited parts of the Pacific were not as widely discussed as events at Bikini. The US airforce dropped two thermonuclear bombs in 1958, followed by missile launches of a further 10 bombs into space four years later. Source 6.11 A photograph of a group of US soldiers watching the detonation of a thermonuclear bomb over the Marshall Islands in 1958

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Describe the scene in the photograph in source 6.11. 2 What do you think might have been the general attitude of the American public to nuclear testing in the Pacific at this time? In your answer, consider sources such as 6.3 (page 106) and 6.4 (page 107). 3. How do you think the soldiers might justify the tests?

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

111

In 1962, the United States used the British nuclear testing site on Christmas Island as the site for testing 25 bombs. The largest nuclear bomb ever detonated by the US was equivalent to 20 million tonnes of high explosives. It is estimated that about two million seabirds were the casualties of this nuclear test above the island of Kiritimati. The United States detonated 66 nuclear bombs on the atolls of the Pacific between 1946 and 1958. Six Pacific islands were vaporised by nuclear testing and, decades later, many islands that were part of the Pacific Proving Grounds remain contaminated and uninhabitable. Source 6.12 An illustration by US artist Jim Blanchard in 2000 in the form of a postcard expressing the image of a relaxed Pacific holiday destination against the reality of nuclear testing

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Explain the artist’s message in the source 6.12 ‘postcard’. 2. In what way is the illustration evidence of how attitudes have changed since the 1950s?

Use of Mururoa Atoll by France for nuclear testing The French first made contact with the Pacific Islands in 1768 when Count Bougainville sailed to Tahiti, the largest island in Polynesia. It was the first island in the Pacific to come under foreign control when it became a French protectorate in 1842. Long after French colonies in Africa gained independence, the people of Polynesia remained under French colonial rule.

Role and responsibility of governments Tahiti had been a French colony since 1842 but had experienced minimum interference in daily affairs because of a lack of exploitable resources in the remote islands. Prior to the 1950s, there were only 1500 French settlers in a total Tahitian population of 75 000. The people had generally maintained their traditional Tahitian lifestyle of independent self-supporting farming and fishing. In the aftermath of the World War II, in 1946, the French colony was classified as a French overseas territory and became French Polynesia. France began to impose a tighter control on its Pacific Island territory. An indigenous nationalist movement soon emerged, led by Tahitian political activist,

112

Retrospective

self-determination W a people’s right to exercise independent control of its own destiny

Source 6.13 Map of the island groups that make up French Polynesia

Pouvana’a a Oopa (1895–1977), a highly decorated war veteran of World War I and World War II. He led the ‘guitar battalion’ in pressing the French administration to grant equal rights for indigenous people. The battalion was composed of 300 servicemen who had volunteered to fight for the liberation of France during World War II. While in Europe, Pouvana’a and his colleagues had become inspired by French principles of liberty and equality. In 1957, Pouvana’a was appointed vice-president of the newly organised territory of French Polynesia. The following year, Pouvana’a began implementing a series of government reforms and pushed for further decolonisation of French Polynesia. Under the slogan ‘Polynesia for the Polynesian’, he spoke out against the injustices committed by France against the Tahitian people. In retaliation, French President Charles de Gaulle sacked Pouvana’a and his government and revoked the level of self-determination that France had previously granted. In an attempt to crush dissent, Pouvana’a was arrested, tried and sentenced to eight years solitary confinement in a French gaol, followed by exile. In 1954, the French Prime Minister, Pierre Mendes-France, had made the decision to build the atomic bomb. On 13 February 1960, France detonated its first atomic bomb in the French north African colony of Algeria. Algerian independence in 1962 forced France to search for fresh locations for the testing of her nuclear capabilities. The sweeping sands of the Sahara Desert in Algeria were no longer under French control and were also regarded as being too close to the European world. The French government despatched a warship to the Pacific with orders to find a suitable nuclear testing location. Following the American lead, the French military experts decided on a tropical atoll. In the southeastern corner of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia lay the French colony of Mururoa — the ‘atoll of great secrets’. Nuclear weaponry and Mururoa, or ‘Moruroa’ as it was originally known, became the symbols of French military independence and French nationalism. Tahiti possessed the only international airport and harbour facilities in French Polynesia, and so it was to Tahiti that the French govern ment deployed its 18 000 troops, including 3000 French foreign legionnaires, and its teams of engineers and builders. Construction commenced of the wharves, airstrips and watchtowers required to prepare the atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa for nuclear testing.

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

113

Impact on the indigenous peoples Rapid overpopulation had a destabilising effect on the delicate Tahitian ecology, economy and society. From the early 1960s, the French government policy of encouraging French nationals to settle permanently in the Polynesian colonies contributed to the erosion of the indigenous social structure. The better educated and wealthier French expatriates exerted a greater influence on the politics of their island homes. Despite the determined efforts of the Polynesian political parties to achieve self-government, all crucial decisions affecting areas such as foreign affairs and justice continued to be made by the government in France. In response to local objections to the proposal that nuclear weapons be tested in Polynesia, the French government claimed that all decisions relating to the defence of France had to be made in Paris. French Polynesia was a French colony, and so defence policy was regarded as outside the jurisdiction of the elected members of the local Polynesian parliament. Source 6.14 Ida Teariki-Bordes gives a Tahitian account of the impact of nuclear testing on the people of French Polynesia and indigenous protests

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Consider source 6.14 and then suggest how much consultation the French had with the Tahitians prior to commencing nuclear testing in the Pacific. 2. What have been the social, political and economic implications of nuclear testing in Tahiti?

114

Retrospective

In 1962, rumours were heard about the probability of testing nuclear devices in the islands. They were quickly refuted by France. It was only on 3rd January 1963 that General de Gaulle himself announced to a Tahitian delegation which had gone to Paris to visit him, that he had decided to have a nuclear testing base in Polynesia. Towards the end of the year, Teariki (brother), who had become deputy to the French Association, made his official protest during the seven minutes he was entitled to speak in during the year in that Assembly. On July 2, 1966, the first bomb exploded. The same day, our new political party, the Pupu Haere Ai’a Te Nunaa Ia Ora, had its first congress in Papeete. On September 6, 1966, General de Gaulle came to Tahiti to observe the explosion of an A-bomb. My brother, John Teariki, took that unique opportunity to read and hand to the general a paper in which he protested energetically against the nuclear tests and asked for changes in the statutes of French Polynesia. Every year, during the months suitable for the tests, fifteen thousand military people were stationed in Tahiti and the Tuamotu islands — that number was reduced to half for the rest of the time the nuclear testing was going on. Thousands of Polynesians from the outside archipelagoes, Marquesas, Tuamotu, Austral islands, Gambier islands, came to Tahiti with their families to work for the new military installations. Without any proper land in Tahiti, they had to live in slums around Papeete. Thousands of French citizens came from France to make a profit from the economic boom which followed. They opened new shops, built new breweries — the latter were the ones that profited most from the money made by the Tahitian workers. In March 1966, Francis Sanford, who had founded a new political party, became deputy to the French Assembly. He united with Teariki to protest against the nuclear tests. . . Every time they have had a possibility to do so, they asked for control of the radioactivity and the end of the nuclear tests. They never received a direct answer. The ministers for Overseas in Paris refused to receive them . . . Extract from Vanessa Griffen, Women Speak Out! A Report of the Pacific Women’s Conference, 1976, Suva.

Soviet Union W a union of 15 republics headed by Russia, in eastern Europe and western and northern Asia

Source 6.15 French President Charles de Gaulle’s comment during a press conference in July 1964, responding to criticisms that France’s nuclear capability could never match that of either the United States or the Soviet Union SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What comment do you think President Charles de Gaulle is making in source 6.15 about France’s nuclear capability and the arms race? 2. How does the French president justify the greater nuclear weapons capability of the US and the USSR? plutonium W a radioactive element capable of fission

irradiated W contaminated by radiation

The progress of the French weapons program accelerated under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle, French president from 1958 until 1969. He was a passionate nationalist committed to pursue French security through the development of a nuclear deterrent. President de Gaulle was grimly determined to ensure France would never again suffer the hardship and humiliation inflicted during the invasion and occupation of France in World War II. Possessing the nuclear bomb was regarded as the ultimate guarantee of peace and safety. In 1963, Britain, the Soviet Union and America signed an agreement banning nuclear testing in the atmosphere, under water and in space. President de Gaulle was not deterred and provided French nuclear research teams with the facilities to continue atmospheric testing.

It is obvious that the megatonnes which we could employ do not match the numbers which America and Russia could unleash. But once a certain nuclear capacity is reached and in regard to our direct defense, the size of the respective arsenals does not have an absolute value. For since a man and a country can only die once, deterrence exists once one has the means to inflict mortal damage on a possible aggressor, the determination to use them and the confidence in one’s ultimate decision. Quoted in Serge Berstein, The Republic of de Gaulle, 1958–1969, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1993.

Mururoa Atoll and Fangataufa Atoll, 40 kilometres south, were surrounded by inhabited islands of the archipelago. Polynesian leaders warned French authorities that approximately 7000 islanders lived within close proximity of the testing site. French government ministers and generals replied with assurances that bombs would only be detonated if prevailing winds were blowing away from the inhabited islands toward the empty ocean separating Polynesia from Antarctica. The first atomic blast at Mururoa was detonated on 2 July 1966. A plutonium fission device was placed on a barge anchored in the lagoon. The force of the massive explosion sucked all the water in the shallow lagoon basin into the air. The contents of the lagoon then rained down. It was reported that mounds of irradiated fish covered the tiny islands encircling the reefs. The foul smell from the decaying remains of the creatures of the lagoon drifted across the archipelago for weeks. The French dropped their next nuclear device from an aeroplane two weeks later. Two days later, an accident occurred when a case cracked on a bomb that had been placed on the ground. It did not explode but the deadly plutonium contents spilled across the reef. A layer of asphalt was spread over the contaminated area in an effort to seal it. The grand opening of the Centre d’Experimentation du Pacifique (CEP) was scheduled for September 1966. To mark the occasion, a nuclear device was to be detonated in front of the French President, Charles de Gaulle. On 10 September, the French president boarded a warship that had been especially equipped with protective iron shields and sprinklers to remove radioactive dust. From the carefully located warship the president could personally witness a French nuclear test. The bomb was a box containing a

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

115

device suspended from a helium-filled balloon that was anchored to the reef. The test had to be postponed because an easterly wind was blowing on the day. The following day the weather had deteriorated even further. De Gaulle was impatient to return to Paris and so the bomb was detonated, despite the prevailing winds and assurances that the safety of the local people would remain a priority. Heavy radioactive fallout across the region was subsequently registered at monitoring stations set up by the New Zealand National Radiation Laboratory in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Fiji and Tuvalu. Source 6.16 A photograph showing French President Charles de Gaulle (at right) preparing to witness a nuclear test at Mururoa in 1966

SOURCE QUESTION

Imagine you are a French journalist on assignment at Mururoa in 1966. Referring to information in the text and sources 6.15 and 6.16, write a newspaper article outlining the significance of France’s nuclear testing and the reason for President de Gaulle’s visit to the Pacific. Ignoring global test ban treaties, the French continued developing increasingly sophisticated nuclear weapons and detonated a thermonuclear bomb (H-bomb), codenamed Canopus, over Fangataufa in 1968. The immense radioactive contamination from Canopus left the entire atoll uninhabitable.

Protests for a ‘Niuklia Fri Pasifik’

boycott W the policy of refusing to use or purchase the goods or services provided by an individual or group. The purpose is to bring pressure on the individual/group to engage in different behaviour.

116

Retrospective

By 1968, only the French and Chinese continued exploding nuclear weapons into the atmosphere. The impact of the contamination caused by the hydrogen bomb blast eventually led to a global protest movement against further French atmospheric tests. It had been too easy for the world community and French government to brush aside the original indigenous protest against nuclear testing in the Pacific. Vocal opposition from nations like Australia and New Zealand was harder to ignore. In the 1970s a widespread boycott of French goods, airlines and shipping was having an impact upon French business interests and trade. Australia and New Zealand also began proceedings against the French in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In 1974, the new French President, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, ordered nuclear testing in the Pacific be moved underground.

The overwhelming political and economic power of the nuclear nations could not silence the strong indigenous voices raised against nuclear testing in the Pacific. W In Tahiti, the movement begun by Pouvana’a continued with Francis Sanford and John Teariki’s demands for greater autonomy and selfgovernment for French Polynesia. They continued to draw world attention to the injustice and devastation of nuclear testing in the Pacific. W From the 1970s, the leading voice in the Polynesian independence and nuclear free movement was Oscar Temaru. W An Anglican priest, Walter Hadye Lini, became the founding prime minister of Vanuatu in 1980. During the years of his controversial leadership of Vanuatu, Lini advocated establishing socialist governments throughout Melanesia and self-determination for the Timorese from Indonesia and the Kanaks in New Caledonia. Father Lini expelled the French ambassador from Vanuatu after it gained independence and maintained a spirited opposition to French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Between 1966 and 1992, France had conducted 41 atmospheric and 138 underground tests in French Polynesia. The New Zealand monitoring stations continued registering heavy radioactive fallout across the islands of the Pacific. In June 1996, French President Jacques Chirac announced the end of 30 years of nuclear testing at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls. Source 6.17 A photograph of part of an anti-nuclear protest march in Papeete, capital of Tahiti, in September 1995, denouncing nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What is the message being expressed by the protestors in source 6.17? 2 Where would a photograph like this appear and what impression does it convey of the protest movement against nuclear testing? 3. This photograph was taken in 1995. How does it suggest the public attitude to nuclear testing in the Pacific had changed during the post-war period?

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

117

Use of Australia by Britain for nuclear testing Britain chose Australian soil to test its nuclear weapons. With the agreement and support of the Australian government, in 1952, Britain detonated its first nuclear device on Monte Bello Island, just off the coast of Western Australia (see the map in source 6.2, page 105). Two further tests were carried out in 1953 at Emu Field, in the Great Victorian Desert region of South Australia. Emu Field was considered to be too remote and an alternative site had to be found. The peace of the arid landscape of South Australia was destroyed in 1956 and 1957 with the launch of Operation Buffalo, and the detonation of nine major nuclear bombs at Maralinga. The name ‘Maralinga’ came from a dialect of the Pitjantjatjara people; it meant ‘field of thunder’. The Australian people were not consulted and the Australian government asked Britain few questions about the long-term effects of Operation Buffalo. Source 6.18 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s comment in 1957 on the progress of nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia Source 6.19 A photograph of a mushroom cloud following the detonation of a nuclear device at Maralinga in 1957, as part of Britain’s nuclear testing program in Australia

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Why did the British prime minister (source 6.18) consider it necessary to be on ‘equal terms’ with Soviet Russia? 2. Imagine you just witnessed the detonation of a nuclear device at Maralinga in 1957. Compile a list of five questions you would ask the British government about Operation Buffalo and the effect of nuclear testing on Australia.

118

Retrospective

We have made a successful start. When the [nuclear] tests are completed, as they soon will be, we shall be in the same position as the United States or Soviet Russia. We shall have made and tested the massive weapons. It will be possible then to discuss on equal terms.

Source 6.20 Excerpt from an ABC radio interview on ‘PM’ on 27 September 2006 in which Ric Johnstone describes what it was like as an eyewitness to nuclear testing at Maralinga

Well you have your back to the area where the blast is going to happen. You have your eyes shut tight and your hands over your eyes as you were instructed. But when the blast detonates, you feel rather than see the white flash. It seems to go right through everything. Then you turn to face where the detonation was in time to see the fireball going up into the air which forms into the mushroom cloud. My thoughts at that time were one of ‘God, that’s big’. And I think everybody felt at that time a little insignificant. It makes you feel very small when you see a fireball that appears to be above your head that’s some miles across . . .

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. From source 6.20, describe what eyewitnesses were told to do when a nuclear blast was detonated at Maralinga. 2. Explain the reaction of the witnesses and what you think it reveals about the technology being tested at this time.

Impacts on indigenous people and ex-servicemen During the tests, British and Australian army personnel were exposed to the contamination of the blasts. An estimated 22 000 British and 15 000 Australian servicemen were exposed to radiation from British atomic testing in Australia and the Christmas Islands. In 2001, claims emerged that the British government had planned to intentionally expose servicemen to nuclear explosions in an experiment codenamed ‘Operation Lighthouse’. A network of trenches dug around four Maralinga nuclear test sites in 1959 incorporated staff command posts, weapons pits and accommodation huts. While the British abandoned Operation Lighthouse, they tested the efficiency of protective clothing at Maralinga in 1956 when 24 soldiers were ordered to march through a nuclear fallout zone three days after a test. Source 6.21 Account of Maralinga and the impact of nuclear testing on servicemen, by Professor John Keane whose father served at Maralinga

Maralinga was no holiday camp. New arrivals were greeted with talk of the need for caution and briefed to steer clear of the huge dumping pit on the edge of town, called the Graveyard. There was also the Dirty Road, trailing 16 kilometres north from the town to ground zero. There, at the edge of the Great Victoria Desert, all sorts of nuclear experiments went on for a decade. Seven big bombs were exploded there, together with a top-secret program of 550 experiments known as the Minor Trials. It was here that Britain and Australia lost their nuclear innocence . . . (continued)

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

119

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Identify the reasons why the British chose Maralinga as the site for their nuclear testing. What were the shortcomings of their reasoning? 2. What was the goal of Britain’s nuclear testing? 3. In what ways could it be argued that servicemen’s lives were put at risk?

The official story is that the site was uninhabited and blessed with good weather and near-perfect security conditions. Unhindered by man or nature, the British and their loyal Australian partners reckoned it an excellent location for putting into practice the fantastic vision first defined in secret by Clement Attlee’s [British] Labour Government in 1946. ‘We have got to have this thing over here whatever it costs, and with a bloody Union Jack flying on top of it,’ foreign secretary Ernest Bevin told Whitehall officials after the Americans refused to proceed with a joint nuclear project. The Labour Cabinet decreed that 15 nuclear weapons a year should be built. The target was a massive arsenal; since 25 bombs would be needed to ‘knock out’ Britain, Air Marshal Lord Tedder explained in 1947, the Soviet Union, which was 40 times the size of Britain, could only suffer knock out with 1000 bombs. This was the impetus behind Maralinga . . . British, Australian and New Zealand servicemen were deliberately and repeatedly exposed to nuclear hazard. Dressed only in boots and shorts and using scrubbing brushes and buckets filled with detergent, they were instructed to strip and service and clean radioactive aircraft and other equipment. Wearing gumboots and suits made variously of rubber, wool and cotton, they were ordered to walk, crawl or drive through places where Hiroshima-size bombs had hours before roasted the saltbush and red desert sand into three-inch thick glass, called ‘bomb glaze’ . . . Five decades after entering service, the thousands of British and Australian men who have survived Maralinga (more than a quarter of them are now dead) feel hurt and humiliated. They have no medals to pass on to their grandchildren, no letters of praise or apology . . . no war-time veterans’ privileges. What they do have are anecdotes about unusual clusters of multiple myelomas. Hip and spine deformities. Teeth that are falling out. Poor eyesight. Bleeding bowels. Post-traumatic anxiety and depression. And perhaps up to a quarter of them, according to preliminary data collected by the New Zealand government, have disabled offspring . . . Extracts from an article by John Keane (Professor of Politics at the University of Westminster, London), ‘Maralinga’s afterlife’, The Age, 11 May 2003.

The British and Australian authorities forcibly removed traditional owners from their land. Without any consultation, they exploded atomic bombs over walking tracks and bush tucker country. Large amounts of long-term radioactive fallout contaminated the atmosphere and the traditional land of the Pitjantjatjara people. People unaware of the dangers wandered into the test sites because warning signage and security patrols were totally inadequate. Aboriginal people who commonly went barefoot and slept on the ground were particularly susceptible to radiation poisoning. Charlie and Edie Milpuddie and their two children walked into a bomb crater after a 1957 test. When the decontamination team located them they were simply showered and then driven 200 km away from the site. Edie Milpuddie had been pregnant. She subsequently gave birth to a stillborn child and then lost her next child to a brain tumour. The Pitjantjatjara spoke of the spread of blindness, skin rashes and cancers that seemed to travel with the wind throughout eastern Australia. Scientists detected radioactive fallout from the nuclear tests as far away as Adelaide and Melbourne.

120

Retrospective

Source 6.22 Account of the treatment of the traditional owners of Maralinga during nuclear testing

Despite claims to the contrary, Aboriginal people did wander through radiated lands. They camped in fresh craters, to keep warm and to trap rabbits blinded by cobalt pellets. When discovered, they were compulsorily showered, their fingernails scrubbed with soap. The women suffered miscarriages. They were herded in trucks or pushed onto trains, expelled from a sacred site at Ooldea, a day’s walk from Maralinga airport. Alice Cox — at 87, the oldest survivor of the tests — remembers it well. ‘Soldiers everywhere. Guns. We all cry, cry, cryin’. Men, women and children, all afraid’ . . . Extract from John Keane, ‘Maralinga’s afterlife’, The Age, 11 May 2003.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What does the writer of source 6.22 suggest was the impact of nuclear testing on the traditional custodians of the land? 2. What does source 6.22 imply about the official understanding of the effects and impact of nuclear testing during the 1950s? Royal Commission W a major government inquiry or investigation into a particular issue, the findings of which are made public

In 1985, an Australian Royal Commission investigated the long-term contamination of test sites and mounting evidence of the related poor health of the local indigenous people and ex-servicemen. Follow-up health checks were done on people reported to have been at risk of contamination. For people like Charlie Milpuddie, the health monitoring had come too late. Charlie Milpuddie was already dead. In 1997, the British Nuclear Test Veteran’s Association commissioned an inquiry into the health of its servicemen. The results were published in the Roff Report. According to the report, the servicemen exposed to atomic blasts were 10 times more likely to suffer from cancers such as multiple myeloma than the average population. Australian inquiries undertaken in the decades after nuclear testing concluded that the atomic tests had a devastating effect on servicemen and Aborigines. For traditional owners, the nuclear testing meant evacuation of whole communities from their homes, followed by radiation poisoning.

Source 6.23 A photograph of safety apparatus and procedures for entering and leaving the contaminated Maralinga site in 1977, 20 years after testing

SOURCE QUESTION

Source 6.23 shows safety procedures at Maralinga in 1977. How do you think attitudes to nuclear testing in Australia have changed over the last 50 years?

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

121

British and Australian governments have still not offered adequate compensation to the people who endured so much during this period. In January 1985, some recompense was made for the suffering of the past. The South Australian parliament passed legislation and finally handed back native title land to the Maralinga traditional owners. Source 6.24 A photograph from December 1984 showing two tribal elders, Tommy Queama and Jack Baker, with the documents granting their people the Maralinga land that was taken for British nuclear testing in the 1950s

SOURCE QUESTION

What do you think was the significance of the land grant documents for the indigenous people of South Australia? Source 6.25 A photograph from 1991 of Hughie Winlass and Barka Bryant, representatives of the traditional owners of the Maralinga lands, at a press conference announcing their request for British cooperation in cleaning up the nuclear waste left after the 1950s testing SOURCE QUESTION

Imagine you are one of the indigenous leaders in source 6.25. List the points you might make at the press conference about the impact of the arms race and world politics on your community.

122

Retrospective

Meeting objectives and outcomes Key features, issues, individuals and events

P1.1, P1.2

1. Oscar Temaru was the leader of Tahiti’s anti-nuclear and proindependence party. Pouvana’a Tetuaapua Oopa was a Tahitian war veteran who became the champion of the Polynesian nationalist movement. Write a short biography of one of these or of another Pacific Islander who has played a part in shaping the changing image of the Pacific. Word process your biography and publish a class collection. (P1.1) 2. The western world has a particularly romantic view of the Pacific Islands. Using the source material in this chapter as your starting point, write an essay on ‘The life and politics of the postwar Pacific’ which provides a more balanced view. (P1.2) P2.1

Change and continuity over time

3. By 1995, the movement against the testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific had become popular and worldwide. In groups, discuss the anti-nuclear movement and suggest the reasons behind this attitudinal change. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry

P3.1–P3.5

4. After World War II, the United States became responsible for the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (see the extracts from the trust agreement in source 6.4, page 107). Re-read this agreement then hold a class debate on the topic: ‘That America fulfilled its obligations to the people of the Pacific Islands in the 1950s and 1960s’. (P3.1, P3.3) 5. Read source 6.26 and explain in your own words what has happened to this ex-serviceman since he returned from military service in the Pacific. Carry out research to find out the current status of compensation claims by ex-servicemen in the United States, Britain and Australia. (P3.3) Source 6.26 Extracts from an article reporting the payment of compensation to a British ex-serviceman who served on Christmas Island during nuclear testing

A critically ill British ex-serviceman who was exposed to radiation in weapons tests has been awarded compensation by the United States, even though his own government has refused to give him any money. Roy Prescott, 66, has been awarded $75,000 by the American government, which recognised that his lung cancer was caused by radiation released in the tests. Earlier this year the same claim was rejected by the [British] Ministry of Defence [MoD], which said there was insufficient evidence to show he was contaminated with harmful doses of radioactivity during the trials . . . [H]e said: ‘I am a casualty of the cold war and, whilst I am pleased that I am receiving compensation and recognition from the US government, it really galls me . . . that the British government continue to fail in their duty of care towards . . . nuclear test veterans by denying that we were exposed to radiation during service.’ . . . Extracts from an article by Rob Evans, ‘US compensation for British nuclear test veteran’, The Guardian (UK), 26 July 2006.

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

123

6. Compile a class database of useful resources for the study of the topic ‘Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s’. Once you have compiled the database, select five of the resources you regard as the most useful and that provide a range of perspectives. Annotate them to provide the basis for a student resource guide. Include a range of resources in the database. For example, for useful websites, visit the website for this book and click on the ‘Nuclear testing resources’ weblinks for this chapter. Useful documentaries might include: Silent Storm (director Peter Butt, Film Australia, 2003); Half-life — a parable for the nuclear age (O’Rourke and Associates, 1985). Books could include: John May, The Greenpeace Book of the Nuclear Age — the Hidden History, the Human Cost (Greenpeace Books, 1989); Bengt Danielsson and Marie Therese Danielsson, Poisoned Reign: French Nuclear Colonisation in the Pacific (Penguin, 1986). (P3.2, P3.3)

Communicating an understanding of history

P4.1, P4.2

7. In three class groups, research and compile a fact sheet on nuclear testing in either the Marshall Islands, Mururoa Atoll or Australia during the 1950s and the 1960s. Identify where your chosen site is located, why it was chosen, who lived there, who was involved in the testing and what have been the problems and challenges that have come from the nuclear testing. Communicate your group’s findings to the class as a PowerPoint presentation, roleplay, series of posters or a newspaper report. (P3.2, P3.5) 8. Each one of us will have our own way of telling others about experiences we have had. The story of nuclear testing in the Pacific will differ according to who is providing the account. The same event may be evidence of: W the triumph of modern technology W a massive act of environmental vandalism W the power of democracy W a total disregard for the rights and values of others. Choose a group of students from your class to represent the different groups of people involved in, and affected by, nuclear testing in the Pacific. They form a panel of guests who have come to your classroom to answer a series of questions that the rest of the class has put together. At the end of the interview session, the classroom journalists must write a short report on what they have learnt about the complex history and issue of nuclear testing in the Pacific during the 1950s and 1960s. (P3.4, P4.2) 9. Using the sources and Internet research, write a speech to be delivered to your class explaining the range of issues faced by Australia as a result of nuclear testing. (P4.1, P4.2)

124

Retrospective

7

KEY CONCEPTS Key concepts relevant to this chapter are: W democracy W racism W self-determination

The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s The areas of focus of this case study are: W W

W

KEY DATES 1954 Supreme Court orders schools to desegregate

W

Segregation in the USA in the 1950s Martin Luther King and the use of non-violence to achieve civil rights objectives The development of more radical methods and individuals in the 1960s, for example, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement

T US

1955–56 T Montgomery

Bus Boycott

1957 September US Army protects African American students entering Central High School, Little Rock T President Eisenhower initiates 1957 Civil Rights Act T 27

1960–61 T Campaign of ‘sit-ins’ against segregation 1960s T Growing influence of Malcolm X, Black Power and Black Panthers 1963 T Protest

marches in Birmingham, Alabama T August March on Washington

Source 7.1 A photograph showing US Democratic hopefuls, Barack Obama (third from left) and Hillary Clinton (fourth from right) participating in a march on 4 March 2007 commemorating ‘Bloody Sunday’, the 1965 voting rights campaign march from Selma to Montgomery.

1964 ‘Freedom Summer’ volunteers murdered 4 July Civil Rights bill becomes law

1965 March ‘Bloody Sunday’ and Selma to Montgomery march August President Johnson signs Voting Rights Act

1968 4 April Martin Luther King assassinated Civil Rights Act makes discrimination illegal

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

125

Introduction

Civil Rights Movement W a program of protest and civil disobedience undertaken by African Americans and their supporters in the 1950s and 1960s to overcome racist policies that denied them their civil rights

In mid January 2007, Democratic Party Senator Barack Obama embarked on a campaign to gain his party’s nomination for the United States 2008 presidential election. This was newsworthy because Obama was an African American, a member of a group within the United States that, at the time of his birth, was struggling to even exercise voting rights. It was also significant because Obama’s considerable popularity led many to believe that the United States, a nation with a long history of racial discrimination, was ready, in the early twenty-first century, to elect an African American president. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s helped lay the groundwork for this change. Source 7.2 Extracts from a news report on 16 January 2007 commenting on Barack Obama seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination in the 2008 presidential elections

OBAMA: DEMOCRATIC STAR WHO COULD BECOME FIRST BLACK US PRESIDENT By Paul Handley

Democratic Senator Barack Obama, who has rocketed to national political stardom in only two years, stands a good chance to become the first African-American president in United States history . . . Only two years into his first six-year term in the Senate, with easy oratorical skills and a brilliant smile, Obama is a phenomenon unseen in US politics some say, since John F. Kennedy burst onto the scene and captured the presidency in 1960. Advertising himself as the voice of a new post-baby-boom generation, Obama is the son of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother from the US heartland state of Kansas. He identifies himself as African-American and is seen by most Americans as such . . . After graduating from high school, Obama attended Columbia University and then went to ultra-competitive Harvard Law School, where he was the first black American to hold the prestigious post as president of the influential Harvard Law Review . . . He exploded onto the national scene that summer [2004] with an electrifying speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. ‘There is not a black America, and a white America, a Latino America, and Asian America — we are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America,’ he declared to roaring applause . . . After winning the Senate he has proved himself an agile legislator working with members of both parties while maintaining a steady profile as a moderate liberal . . . Yahoo! News, 16 January 2007.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What is the main content of source 7.2? 2. What do you think was the journalist’s motive for writing this article?

126

Retrospective

Segregation in the USA in the 1950s

segregation W the policy of separating racial groups in all aspects of their lives to ensure that whites maintained supremacy over African Americans Jim Crow laws W state laws, dating back to the 1880s, aimed at enforcing segregation between whites and blacks in the use of transport and public facilities and in the outlawing of marriage between the two racial groups

Despite having gained their emancipation from slavery in 1865, African Americans faced discrimination in every aspect of their lives until at least the 1950s. The 14th amendment (1868) to the United States Constitution promised ‘the equal protection of the laws’ to all the nation’s citizens. In practice, many US lawmakers, law courts and law enforcers approved a systematic segregation according to race. This resulted in African Americans being forced to use separate entrances to buildings; separated in theatres and on buses; and denied access to ‘whites only’ swimming pools, hospitals, schools, housing and even cemeteries. They had to endure inadequate and substandard facilities; were intimidated into not exercising their voting rights; were referred to by the derogatory terms ‘nigger’ and ‘coon’; and were at risk of becoming victims of mob rule, horrific violence and even lynchings. Laws known as the Jim Crow laws enforced this segregation and the unequal distribution of the nation’s resources that accompanied it. Segregation and racial intolerance were worse in the southern states, where over 50 per cent of African Americans lived.

Source 7.3 Photograph showing the scene at the lynching of two African Americans in Indiana in 1930. The young men had been accused of the murder of a white man and the assault of his girlfriend.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Describe what is happening in the source 7.3 photograph. 2. What appears to be the attitude of the crowd witnessing the lynching? racist W the attitude that people of a different race/colour are inferior to those of one’s own race/colour

democracy W government by elected representatives of the people

In the early 1950s, US President Harry Truman, despite his own long-held racist attitudes, made some symbolic acts to address this situation, including ordering an end to discrimination in the armed forces and the civil service. He recognised that discrimination damaged the United States’ international reputation. His leadership in this area helped to bring the issue of civil rights for African Americans to national attention. During the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans, along with people of other racial groups within the United States, embarked on the Civil Rights Movement to challenge discrimination and achieve the equality that the American Constitution promised for its entire people and which was part of its claim to being a democracy. One of the early actions of this movement was to challenge the education system.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

127

Source 7.4 Photographs showing the difference in schools under the ‘separate but equal’ policy. On the left is the exterior of an African American school in Ruleville, Mississippi in 1949. On the right is a primary school for white students in Virginia in 1935.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What do the photographs in source 7.4 suggest about the differences in the facilities available to students attending each of these schools? 2. List two facts you could put forward to support the view that the schools available to African Americans were inferior to those available to white children. Source 7.5 Extract from Dr Kenneth Clark’s testimony in the Brown case. In his ‘doll tests’, Clark observed the reactions of African-American children to a pink doll and a brown doll. SOURCE QUESTION

In your own words, explain what Dr Clark (source 7.5) considered to be the effect of segregation.

‘Separate but equal’ in the education system In the case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the United States Supreme Court upheld the legality of separating races on the basis of the principle ‘separate but equal’. As a result, in the 1950s, African American children attended schools that were lacking in toilets, running water and even desks. Local education authorities only purchased new books for the white students in their districts. In Alabama in 1949, the state’s expenditure on African American students amounted to 27 per cent of its expenditure on white students.

In 1950, eight-year-old Linda Brown became the centre of a Kansas court case demanding an end to segregated schools, which existed legally in 17 states. Spurred on by her father, she wanted to attend the well-equipped ‘whites only’ school six blocks from her home rather than the African American school at four times the distance. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and its lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, brought the case to state and federal courts, and finally on appeal to the US Supreme Court. Throughout this process, supporters of segregation fought strongly to maintain separate schools for white children. They argued that the Constitution did not give the US federal government the power to overrule state law on education. Dr Kenneth Clark, a key witness for the NAACP, described the results of his investigations into the impact of segregation on African American children (see source 7.5).

I found that 10 of the 16 children between the ages of six and nine whom I tested chose the white doll as their preference. Eleven of the children chose the brown doll as the doll which looked ‘bad’. . . . My opinion is that a fundamental effect of segregation is basic confusion in the individuals and their concepts about themselves . . . This is an example of how the pressures which these children sensed against being brown forced them to evade reality — to escape the reality which seems too burdening or threatening . . . These children in Clarendon County, like other human beings who are subjected to an inferior status, have been definitely harmed . . . the signs of instability are clear. Quoted in Globe Fearon Historical Case Studies, The Civil Rights Movement, Globe Fearon Educational Publisher, New Jersey, 1997, p. 17.

On 17 May 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren handed down the unanimous decision of the nine Supreme Court justices (see source 7.6).

128

Retrospective

Source 7.6 An extract from Chief Justice Earl Warren’s speech handing down the Supreme Court’s decision in the Brown case, 17 May 1954

To separate [the African American children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority . . . We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are . . . unequal. Chief Justice Earl Warren, quoted in Globe Fearon Historical Case Studies, The Civil Rights Movement, op. cit., p. 18.

SOURCE QUESTION

What reasons does Chief Justice Warren give in source 7.6 for the Supreme Court’s judgement overturning ‘separate but equal’? desegregation W the policy of breaking down differences that have existed between racial groups

Ku Klux Klan W an organisation, founded originally in 1865, whose members engaged in campaigns of terror and intimidation against African Americans and those who supported them integration W the policy of encouraging contact between different racial groups and ensuring that they share the use of facilities

Source 7.7 Extract from 14-year-old Elizabeth Eckford describing her attempts to reach Central High School

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Who are the ‘guards’ that Elizabeth Eckford was referring to in source 7.7? What does she expect them to do for her? 2. What does the source reveal of the guards’ attitude towards her?

The Supreme Court demanded the desegregation of schools. In 1955, it reinforced this decision by ordering officials to comply with its guidelines for bringing African and white American students together in schools. In the South, many community leaders responded with plans to continue segregated education. Politicians gave their signatures in support of the Southern Manifesto, aimed at defeating the Brown decision. People formed Citizens’ Councils to organise resistance to the ruling. Others supported the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan. By late 1956, six southern states had not even attempted to integrate education. It was clearly going to be very difficult to enforce a Supreme Court decision that had so much organised opposition, especially considering that US President Eisenhower had no personal commitment to integration. In 1957, nine African American students tried to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. They had to endure threats and attempted violence from the racist crowds lining the streets that led to the school. Prosegregation Arkansas governor, Faubus, sent in the Arkansas National Guard to ‘preserve order’.

At the corner I tried to pass through the long line of guards around the school so as to enter the grounds behind them. One of the guards pointed across the street. So I pointed in the same direction and asked whether he meant for me to cross the street and walk down. He nodded ‘yes.’ So, I walked across the street conscious of the crowd that stood there, but they moved away from me . . . Then someone shouted, ‘Here she comes, get ready!’ I moved away from the crowd on the sidewalk and into the street. If the mob came at me, I could then cross back over so the guards could protect me. The crowd moved in closer and then began to follow me, called me names. I still wasn’t afraid . . . Then my knees started to shake and all of a sudden I wondered whether I could make it to the center entrance a block away. It was the longest block I ever walked in my whole life. Even so, I still wasn’t too scared because all the time I kept thinking that the guards would protect me . . . The crowd was quiet. I guess they were waiting to see what was going to happen. When I was able to steady my knees, I walked up to the guard who had let the white students in. He too didn’t move. When I tried to squeeze past him, he raised his bayonet and then the other guards closed in and they raised their bayonets. Elizabeth Eckford, quoted in Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, David McKay, New York, 1962, pp. 73–6.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

129

Source 7.8 A photograph showing President Eisenhower’s National Guard escorting the nine students into Central High School at Little Rock, Arkansas, on 27 September 1957

Source 7.9 Extract from the New York Times report in September 1957, describing the crowd’s response to the nine children’s admission to the High School

Little Rock degenerated into mob rule as pro-segregationists engaged in campaigns of hatred and violence against African Americans. African Americans suffered beatings, had their property attacked and lived under constant threat from the racist groups who controlled the city. Finally, President Eisenhower, more concerned to enforce the federal law on integration than committed to desegregation, ordered 1000 federal troops into Little Rock. Two days later, on 27 September 1957, the nine African American students entered Central High School under the protection of the United States army.

A man yelled: ‘Look, they’re going into our school’ . . . The crowd now let out a roar of rage. ‘They’ve gone in,’ a man shouted. ‘Oh God,’ said a woman, ‘the niggers are in school.’ A group of six girls, dressed in skirts and sweaters, hair in pony-tails, started to shriek and wail. ‘The niggers are in our school,’ they howled hysterically . . . Hysteria swept from the shrieking girls to members of the crowd. Women cried hysterically, tears running down their faces. Extract from New York Times, September 1957, reproduced in N. Demarco, The USA: a Divided Union, Longman, UK, 1994, p. 82.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. In what ways is the behaviour of the guards in source 7.8 different from that described by Elizabeth Eckford in source 7.7? What is the reason for this difference? 2. In what ways does the information provided in source 7.9 support the attitudes of the white onlookers that are evident in source 7.7? 3. What impression do sources 7.7 and 7.9 give of the African American students wanting to attend Central High School? How do you explain the differences in the two perspectives expressed?

130

Retrospective

When the Arkansas National Guard troops took over a month later, violence against the new students resumed. Governor Faubus used this as an excuse to close the high schools for a full year. The state then established ‘private’ schools, which excluded African Americans. Despite a court order that schools be reopened, desegregation lacked strong support from either state or federal governments and remained difficult to enforce. In 1960, only about 13 per cent of African American students in the southern states attended integrated schools. In 1964, the figure was 2 to 3 per cent for the nation as a whole.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott civil rights W rights that anyone in a given society is entitled to as a member of that society; the rights that the US Constitution gives to its citizens

boycott W the policy of refusing to use or purchase the goods or services provided by an individual or group. The purpose is to bring pressure on the individual/group to engage in different behaviour.

The campaign to enforce desegregation in schools began a series of smallscale protests aimed at the achievement of African American civil rights. On 1 December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, 42-year-old Rosa Parks began another phase of this movement. Tired after a long day’s work, she refused to give up her seat on the bus. The law reserved the front seats of the bus for whites. African Americans could sit in the back of the bus or in the middle if whites did not require these seats. Rosa Parks sat in the middle and refused to move when the ‘whites only’ section had filled up. The bus driver called the police, who arrested her. Rosa Parks, a well-respected member of the NAACP, went to gaol for violating the law. In protest, the African American community, who comprised 75 per cent of bus users in Montgomery, began a boycott of the city’s buses that continued for 382 days. This was in addition to African American demands for equal and polite treatment from bus drivers and the provision of jobs for African American drivers. African Americans wanted recognition of their equal rights to bus seats. Bus companies faced massive financial losses but refused to give in. The bus companies had the support of large sections of the white community, especially people who belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and the Citizens’ Councils formed to resist integration.

Source 7.10 A photograph showing members of Ku Klux Klan walking the streets of Montgomery at the time of the bus boycott

SOURCE QUESTION

What do you think these Ku Klux Klan members would have hoped to achieve by appearing like this at the time of the Montgomery bus boycott?

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

131

The boycott demonstrated African Americans’ determination to take unified action in the fight for their rights; the value of economic power as a weapon; the extent of racism that existed within many southern communities; and the changed attitudes of many whites. The African American slogan was ‘People don’t ride the bus today. Don’t ride it for freedom’. Montgomery’s African American residents walked or gained transport through car pools, often with the help of sympathetic members of the white community. Martin Luther King, a young Baptist minister working in Montgomery, took on an important role as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the organisation directing the bus boycott. His church became a centre for planning tactics and for providing inspiration and emotional support to help make the boycott unanimous. In November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the MIA’s case for desegregation. The boycott ended on 20 December 1956, when the bus companies agreed to allow all bus travellers the same rights to any vacant seats.

Civil Rights Acts in 1957 and 1960

discrimination W treating an individual or a group differently on the basis of race, age, religion, sex or some other factor

The bus boycott and moves towards desegregation in schools made President Eisenhower conscious of the need to gain support from potential African American voters. In the United States, people have to register in order to vote and at this time only about 20 per cent of African Americans had done so. Eisenhower initiated the 1957 Civil Rights Act, significant as the first civil rights legislation in 82 years, although limited in scope. It declared discrimination to be illegal and established the Federal Civil Rights Commission to prosecute anyone in breach of this law. While technically it provided improved opportunities for African Americans to register to vote, it provided only weak sanctions for anyone trying to prevent them from doing so. Increased violence against African Americans, including bombings of churches and schools, led to Eisenhower putting forward a new bill, which became the 1960 Civil Rights Act. It created penalties for anyone violating a court order to integrate a school or preventing someone either voting or registering to vote. An additional 3 per cent of African Americans registered for the 1960 elections.

Martin Luther King and the use of non-violence to achieve civil rights objectives

civil disobedience W a campaign in which participants refuse to obey laws that they believe to be unjust

132

Retrospective

Martin Luther King (1929–1968) admired the example of non-violent protest that Mohandas K. Gandhi had used in India in the 1920s. Gandhi had encouraged Indian people to practise non-violent non-cooperation in their protest against British rule of their country. Like Gandhi, King advocated a program of civil disobedience that used non-violent methods. In 1957, King joined with other members of the clergy to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC began a campaign of ‘direct action’, that was a dramatic change from the NAACP’s focus on court battles. The campaign involved non-violent protest in the form of boycotts, demonstrations and marches to increase national consciousness of the denial of civil rights to African Americans. While many of these were successful, the harder thing was to establish and maintain the organisation that would inspire ongoing effort for the cause.

Sit-ins In February 1960, in North Carolina, four African American college students refused to leave the seats they had taken at the local ‘whites only’ Woolworth’s cafeteria. With other students supporting them, they maintained a presence on the seats for the entire day, forcing cafeteria business to a standstill. Martin Luther King encouraged this non-violent initiative. In 1960–61, over 70 000 people took part in ‘sit-ins’ which succeeded in integrating public eating areas and also in desegregating other public facilities in 150 cities. Source 7.11 Photograph from February 1960 showing the first lunch counter sit-in at Woolworths in Charlotte, North Carolina

Source 7.12 A photograph showing civil rights supporters at a ‘sit-in’ in May 1963. They are seated at Woolworth’s ‘whites only’ lunch counter in Jacksonville Mississippi. All three had sauce, mustard and paint thrown at them. Some hours later, the man was beaten up.

SOURCE QUESTION

What do source 7.11 and source 7.12 indicate about: (a) supporters of the Civil Rights Movement (b) the attitudes of those who supported segregation?

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

133

SNCC W Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, established in response to the success of the ‘sit-ins’

Read the letter by going to the website for this book and clicking on the Letter from Birmingham Gaol weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii).

Source 7.13 A photograph showing police using fire hoses against civil rights demonstrators during the 1963 civil rights marches in Birmingham, Alabama

SOURCE QUESTION

What information does source 7.13 provide? What do you think was the photographer’s purpose in taking this photo?

134

Retrospective

King’s work in the early 1960s gained increasing national and international support for desegregation in all areas of American life. In 1961, he led demonstrations (organised by the SNCC) in Albany, Georgia, protesting against segregation in hotels, housing and restaurants. The ‘Albany Movement’ achieved some integration of facilities but local authorities took their revenge by closing the parks, selling the swimming pool and removing the seats from the newly integrated public library. This led King to believe that it was better to pressure authorities into ending discrimination, not negotiate with them. In early 1963, Martin Luther King and the SCLC began a series of protest marches in Birmingham, Alabama — a city renowned for its racism. King increased publicity for the movement by encouraging children and teenagers to participate as well. King was arrested and imprisoned for eight days. While there, he wrote his ‘Letter from Birmingham Gaol’, arguing that people were right to disobey unjust laws but must be willing to endure imprisonment. He described himself as standing between two distinct forces that characterised the black community at the time: W those whose self-respect had been so worn-down by years of oppression that they were now complacent about the injustices of segregation W those who harboured a growing bitterness and hatred of white people and had lost all faith in God and their country. Following King’s release, 1000 school students of Birmingham walked and sang in protest against segregation. Police arrested 90 per cent of these students aged between six and 16. King organised another march for the following day. Two thousand five hundred people of all age groups marched. The local police responded with clubs, attack dogs and electric cattle prods. Firefighters turned their high-pressure hoses on the demonstrators, knocking them into the walls of buildings or onto the pavements. Dogs attacked the protestors’ arms and legs. Newspapers published dramatic photos of these events all over the world. President Kennedy sent federal troops to restore order in Birmingham.

Source 7.14 Cartoon entitled ‘Stars fell on Alabama’, by Thomas F. Flannery, published in the Baltimore Evening Sun

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What is the message of the cartoonist who created source 7.14? Who would be its likely audience? 2. What does the cartoon suggest about the impact of events in Birmingham on the United States? Police brutality in Birmingham provided a marked contrast to King’s leadership and tactics and encouraged Americans to support calls for antidiscrimination laws. When African Americans staged another march a few days later, the police refused to obey the order of Police Chief ‘Bull’ Connor to again turn fire hoses on the demonstrators. On 10 June 1963, President John Kennedy called on Congress to pass more civil rights laws. Two nights later, NAACP activist, Medgar Evers, was shot dead outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. African Americans, shocked and outraged at the circumstances of Evers’ death, decided to organise a march to Washington DC, the seat of American government.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

135

The 1963 March on Washington For African Americans, the goals of the March on Washington in August 1963 were: W to pressure the government into passing the proposed new Bill on civil rights and improving employment prospects for African Americans W to stage an event that would attract worldwide media attention and demonstrate the success of non-violent tactics, especially among those angered by the slow pace of change. The march, orchestrated by long-term activist A. Philip Randolph, was a huge demonstration in favour of civil rights for African Americans. On 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King faced a crowd of over 200 000 civil rights supporters crammed in between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It was the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery. King spoke of his dream for a different America: ‘Those who hope that the Negro … will now be content will have a rude awakening if the Nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights’. Source 7.15 A photograph of the March on Washington in 1963. Martin Luther King is third from the right in the front row. It was at this march that he gave his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What does source 7.15 indicate about the strength of this protest and the types of people who supported it? 2. What do the placards indicate about the demands of the protesters? 3. Access the website for this book and click on the ‘I have a dream’ weblink for this chapter. Listen to or read the full speech. (a) What are the key elements of King’s dream as indicated in the speech? (b) How might different groups have felt about this speech?

136

Retrospective

The Civil Rights Bill became law when the new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson (installed after Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963), signed it on 4 July 1964. Johnson had pushed the Bill through Congress partly out of a sense of obligation to Kennedy and, more significantly, because he believed discrimination to be morally wrong. Martin Luther King was present at the signing ceremony. In late 1964, The Swedish Academy awarded King the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the Civil Rights Movement. However, his influence in the movement was already diminishing.

Freedom Summer: Mississippi 1964

Following decades of public pressure, the Mississippi government re-opened the case in 2005 and, with new evidence, re-tried and convicted Edgar Ray Killen, a local minister.

In 1964, the SNCC called on young volunteers — both black and white and from all over the United States — to devote their summer holidays to help end segregation in Mississippi. One thousand volunteers came to help run Freedom Schools, teach typing and reading and provide general information about US laws and African Americans who had fought for civil rights. They also assisted 17 000 African Americans to complete voter registration forms, although the lack of cooperation from officials meant that less than 10 per cent succeeded in actually registering. On 21 June 1964, civil rights workers James Earl Chaney (19), Andrew Goodman (20) and Michael Schwerner (24) disappeared while driving between Meridian and Philadelphia in Mississippi. They were on their way to investigate the burning of an African American church. Police arrested them just outside Philadelphia for a minor driving offence and later said that the three were released from gaol a few hours later. FBI agents found their car in a swamp two days later and six weeks later located the activists’ bodies. They had been beaten and shot. Of the 18 white men accused of the murders, 11 were acquitted and seven were found guilty of lesser charges. The murders highlighted: W the dangers of involvement in the Civil Rights Movement W the law’s failure to uphold the rights of its citizens. The ‘Freedom Summer’ volunteers were under constant threat of violence. Whites burned 37 churches, bombed 30 houses and buildings, beat up 80 people involved in the project, arrested over 1000 and murdered Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. The failure of the newly established Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to gain full representation at the Democratic Party Convention supported the view of many African Americans that integration was unrealistic and non-violence was ineffective.

Bloody Sunday: Selma 1965 On 7 March 1965, 600 SCLC activists embarked on an 80-kilometre march from Selma to Montgomery to highlight the cause of voting rights. Only 23 of Selma’s 19 000 African Americans were registered to vote and King’s campaign to change this had led to police violence but no progress. Police waited for the marchers at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. They attacked the crowd with clubs and tear gas. People called the day ‘Bloody Sunday’. Two days later, Martin Luther King led a second protest march to the bridge and, on Sunday 21 March, 3200 protesters — this time with court protection — began the walk to Montgomery. By the time they got there, on 25 March 1965, the crowd had grown to 25 000. Similar marches in key US cities highlighted the growing popular support for this issue.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

137

Source 7.16 A photograph of Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King (wearing bonnet) leading protesters on 24 March 1965, the fourth day of their march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Describe the event that is taking place in source 7.16 and explain its significance for the Civil Rights Movement. 2. Look back at source 7.1 (page 125). In what ways does the photograph provide evidence of the ongoing importance of the 1960s civil rights campaign? In August 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The protest march from Selma to Montgomery contributed to its successful passage through Congress. By the late 1960s, voter registration in the South had increased by over 200 per cent.

The development of more radical methods and individuals in the 1960s While King inspired many individual initiatives and provided leadership for a number of individual events, he never managed to unite all civil rights activists behind his vision. King’s campaign for civil rights became less influential as: W many activists, including King himself, devoted their energies to anti-war protests against US involvement in Vietnam W younger and more radical supporters of the Civil Rights Movement began to openly question the effectiveness of King’s use of non-violent protest. Members of groups such as the SNCC felt King gained credit for a lot of their hard work.

138

Retrospective

Black Power Black Power W a movement from the 1960s onwards promoting African Americans’ control of their own political and cultural organisations with the goals of promoting pride in their race and achieving equality self-determination W a people’s right to exercise independent control of its own destiny

By the late 1960s, the words Black Power had come to dominate the Civil Rights Movement. The two words were coined by Stokely Carmichael, a leading supporter of the Black Power movement. The words encouraged African Americans to pursue self-determination and to take control of their own communities. Civil rights’ campaigns had focused mainly on discrimination in the South. The 50 per cent of African Americans who lived in the North also suffered inadequate housing, poor access to facilities, high unemployment and white control of government and law enforcement. Stokely Carmichael argued that many whites remained violently opposed to civil rights despite King’s appeals to their consciences and morality. Some Black Power supporters saw their goal as supremacy over whites; others aimed at improved conditions for workers. Some interpreted it as political and economic power. Source 7.17 Photograph showing two African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, at their medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. After receiving their medals, they gave the Black Power salute and refused to acknowledge the US flag when it was raised for the anthem. Smith’s right-handed salute expressed ‘Black Power’ and Carlos’ left-handed salute symbolised black unity. The white silver medallist, Melbournian Peter Norman, showed his support by wearing an OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights) badge. (Smith and Carlos were both pallbearers at Norman’s funeral in October 2006.)

SOURCE QUESTION

What message were these athletes intending to convey at this Olympic Games medal ceremony?

militant W wanting to take aggressive action in support of a cause Nation of Islam W an organisation founded in 1930 and led by Elijah Mohammed from 1934 until 1975

Another prominent African American leader, Malcolm X, also believed that African Americans needed to become militant in order to defeat white racism. While serving a prison sentence for burglary, Malcolm X had become interested in a religious group known as the Nation of Islam. Its teachings incorporated the goal of a separate African American state as well as concern to promote economic self-help for African Americans. While mainstream Islamic teaching was non-racist, the Nation of Islam preached the opposite view — that whites were ‘devils’ who would soon be destroyed, thus enabling black rule.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

139

When released from gaol in 1952, Malcolm took the symbol ‘X’ to signify the absence of an inherited African name and worked to spread both the religious and the political goals of Islam throughout the United States. He was a powerful speaker and succeeded in recruiting thousands of young African Americans to the Nation of Islam. By 1963, around 30 000 African Americans had joined the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X had become its best-known spokesperson. Source 7.18 Malcolm X’s view on the best means of achieving freedom for African Americans

SOURCE QUESTION

List the three main ideas that Malcolm X was putting forward with his words in source 7.18.

Black Panthers W a militant political party established by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 with the goal of gaining equality for African Americans. Its members dressed in black trousers, black leather jackets, black berets and blue shirts.

. . . I don’t go along with any kind of non-violence unless everybody’s going to be non-violent. If they make the Ku Klux Klan non-violent, I’ll be non-violent, if they make the White Citizens’ Council non-violent, I’ll be non-violent. But as long as you’ve got somebody else not being non-violent, I don’t want anybody coming to me talking any non-violent talk . . . You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom, then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it . . . fight them, and you’ll get your freedom . . . Malcolm X, quoted in N. Smith, The USA 1917–1980, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, p. 83.

Initially, Malcolm X’s views differed markedly from those of Martin Luther King. Malcolm X wanted the separation of races, not integration. He spoke of King’s non-violence as ‘the philosophy of the fool’ and called for a ‘black revolution’ to overthrow white power. Malcolm X made fun of King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, with the line, ‘While King was having a dream, the rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare’. The Black Panthers was another militant political group. Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1965, it produced a ten-point program advocating the restructuring of American society to achieve social, political and economic equality for African Americans. The Black Panthers patrolled black communities to protect their residents from abuses of police power. However, by the late 1970s, problems and divisions within the party had eroded its political force.

Violence and frustration

ghetto W an area of a city where a minority group lives

140

Retrospective

In the mid to late 1960s, riots broke out in many United States’ cities. Malcolm X was assassinated in New York on 21 February 1965. This provoked riots in over 100 cities. On 11 August 1965, two weeks after President Johnson had signed the Voting Rights Act, Los Angeles police arrested Marquette Frye, an African American, for drink driving. During the arrest, in the black ghetto area of Watts, one of the police officers aimed a gun at Frye, as if to shoot him. This event provoked six days of rioting as African Americans gave vent to their outrage at the ongoing injustices they had to face. Rioters burned cars and shopping areas and shot police and firefighters. The Watts riots led to 34 deaths, hundreds of people injured and thousands arrested. When asked what Martin Luther King would think of their actions, one of the rioters replied ‘Martin Luther Who?’ In 1966, riots broke out in Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, Milwaukee and San Francisco. The government sent in the National Guard to restore order in all of those cities. In 1967, African American frustration exploded in even more violent riots in Newark and Detroit resulting in the shooting of nearly 83 African Americans.

Source 7.19 Extract from a speech made by Stokely Carmichael on 28 July 1966 SOURCE QUESTION

How did the views put forward by Carmichael in source 7.19 differ from those of Martin Luther King? What would they have agreed on?

Now, let’s get to what the white press has been calling riots. In the first place, don’t get confused with the words they use like ‘anti-white’, ‘hate’, ‘militant’, and all that nonsense like ‘radical’ and ‘riots’. What’s happening is rebellion not riots . . . The extremists in this country are the white people who force us to live the way we live. We have to define our own ethic. We don’t have to (and don’t make any apologies about it) obey any law that we didn’t have a part to make, especially if that law was made to keep us where we are. We have the right to break it. Published in Notes and Comment, a newsletter by the SNCC, Chicago; reproduced in Globe Fearon Historical Case Studies, The Civil Rights Movement, op. cit., p. 109.

SOURCE QUESTION

How did the views put forward by Carmichael in source 7.19 differ from those of Martin Luther King? What would they have agreed on? On 4 April 1968, an assassin killed Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee, where King had gone to support a strike by African American garbage collectors. The riots in 100 American cities in response to his shooting reflected the attitude that non-violence was ineffective.

Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King’s birthday — 15 January — is now a national holiday in the United States on the third Monday of January each year. This is indicative of a number of successes in the Civil Rights Movement. W By the early 1960s, few Americans could ignore the injustices committed against the African American population. W The civil rights activism of the 1950s and 1960s brought about increasingly more meaningful and effective civil rights legislation. The 1968 Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate, on the basis of race, religion, sex and national origin, against anyone trying to finance, rent or purchase accommodation. It also provided protection for civil rights activists. It was President Johnson’s third piece of civil rights legislation and demonstrated his commitment to this issue. W In 1967, the United States Supreme Court overruled state laws forbidding inter-racial marriages. In the following year, Columbia Pictures released Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?. The film starred three major Hollywood actors and dealt sympathetically with the romance between an African American doctor and the daughter of an upper middle-class white couple. It was an indicator of a changed outlook on race relations. W In 1965, only 100 African Americans had been elected to public office. By 1989, 7200 African Americans had been elected to public positions as sheriffs, mayors and members of Congress. By the end of the Civil Rights Movement, significant numbers of the United States’ white population accepted the idea of equal political and legal rights for African Americans. They were slower to accept their rights to social and economic equality, especially if it came at the cost of higher taxation. Segregated neighbourhoods continued to be a feature of American cities. Integrated public schools saw many whites seek private schooling. In the 1970s, membership of the Ku Klux Klan increased by 300 per cent.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

141

Thirty years later, African Americans continued to experience disadvantage, resulting from poverty and discrimination. The average wage for an African American was just over half the average for a white person. Nearly three times as many African Americans lived below the poverty line. African American men received prison sentences at seven times the rate of white men. Fifteen states denied ex-offenders the vote, thus disenfranchising 13 per cent of African American men nationwide, and nearly 40 per cent in some states. Racial tensions and divisions continued. During their 1992 Los Angeles trial, video footage showed four police officers beating up African American Rodney King, whom they had stopped for a supposed traffic violation. When the jury acquitted the officers, Los Angeles erupted into days of rioting — resulting in deaths, injuries and destruction of property. Source 7.20 Photograph showing part of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles

SOURCE QUESTION

How might each of the following groups have responded to the source 7.20 photograph? (a) the Los Angeles police (b) the jury (c) the African American community In the 1950s and 1960s, African American Civil Rights activists pressured successive US governments and presidents to recognise and protect their rights. By the early twenty-first century, overt racism had become unacceptable and African Americans played increasingly significant roles in all aspects of US life. African American, Lieutenant–General Colin Powell was the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. In 2001 he became US Secretary of State. His successor, in 2005, was Condoleeza Rice, an African American born in Birmingham, Alabama, who had previously held the position of National Security Adviser. At the same time, the Civil Rights Movement has yet to eradicate prejudices built up across many generations. In late 2006, white students in Jena, Louisiana, hung nooses from an oak tree after another student had gained permission for black students to share with them its use as a meeting place.

142

Retrospective

Meeting objectives and outcomes Key features, issues, individuals and events

P1.1 and P1.2

1. Choose one of the following individuals or groups who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. Carry out research into: W the individual’s or group’s attitude towards the Civil Rights Movement W the role played within this movement and methods used W the legacy of the individual/group in relation to achievements in civil rights. Use desktop publishing to record your findings on an A4 sheet for display on the class noticeboard. Ella Baker, Stokely Carmichael, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Angela Davies, Elizabeth Eckford, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP, Huey Newton, Rosa Parks, A. Philip Randolph, the SCLC, the SNCC

Change and continuity over time

P2.1

2. Essay: Evaluate the extent to which African Americans overcame the inequities they faced in the period 1950–70. (P2.1) 3. View the 1968 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?. What does this indicate about change or continuity in relation to attitudes towards civil rights for African Americans in the 1960s? (P2.1) 4. Find out how and why Malcolm X’s attitudes and methods changed over the period 1963 to 1965. Summarise your findings in the form of an article suitable for publication in a magazine such as the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘The Good Weekend’. Include a headline which will interest your readers and also highlight the nature of the change in Malcolm X’s attitudes and methods. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry

P3.1–P3.5

5. Class activity: Watch Richard Pearce’s 1990 film The Long Walk Home. (a) List the questions you would ask to consider the film’s value as a historical source. (P3.1) (b) Use the list of questions and your responses to questions (i)–(v) in preparation for the written task in part (c). (i) What factual information does the film present? (P3.2) (ii) What key themes does the film explore? How are these related to the Civil Rights Movement? (P3.2) (iii) What does the film indicate about the cultural, economic, political and/or social ideas and beliefs that influenced people’s different attitudes? (P3.2, P3.4) (iv) What can you deduce about the filmmaker’s perspective on and interpretation of the Civil Rights Movement? (P3.4) (v) What are the strengths/weaknesses of this film for people wanting to understand civil rights issues in the 1950s? (P3.3) (c) Write a two-page response to the following question: How useful and reliable is The Long Walk Home as a historical source on the Civil Rights Movement? (P3.3, P3.5)

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s

143

6. Analyse the passage in source 7.21 by answering the following questions. (P3.3, P3.4) (a) What is the writer’s attitude to the Supreme Court’s decision? Which words indicate this? (b) What do you think are the ‘moral and ethical . . . standards’ that the writer is referring to? (c) Why do you think he makes reference to a ‘well bred, cultured southern white woman and her blue-eyed golden-haired little girl’? (d) What does he intend to do in response to the ruling? (e) What other groups would be likely to support the viewpoint he expresses? Source 7.21 Extract from Black Monday, written by Mississippi judge Tom Brady after the NAACP victory in the Brown case

. . . when a law transgresses the moral and ethical sanctions and standards of the mores [customs], invariably strife, bloodshed and revolution follow in the wake of its attempted enforcement. The loveliest and purest of God’s creatures, the nearest thing to an angelic being that treads this terrestrial ball, is a well-bred, cultured southern white woman or her blue-eyed, golden-haired little girl . . . We say to the Supreme Court and to the northern world, ‘You shall not make us drink from this cup’ . . . We have, through our forefathers, died before for our sacred principles. We can, if necessary, die again. Tom Brady, quoted in N. Smith, The USA 1917–1980, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, p. 69.

7. Research Claudette Colvin’s story of the Montgomery bus boycott. How does it differ from the accepted version of this event? Visit the website for this book and click on the Claudette Colvin weblinks for this chapter for some sources of information.

Communicating an understanding of history

P4.1 and P4.2

8. Group work: Divide into groups of three or four students. Use your knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement to create a roleplay illustrating one of the following ideas: boycott, civil disobedience, civil rights, democracy, militancy, racism, segregation. (P4.1 and P4.2) 9. Your task is to write a speech to be given by a lawyer. Choose to be the lawyer who is prosecuting the perpetrator/s of the murder of one of the following: W Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner W Martin Luther King W Malcolm X. Your speech should outline the nature of the crime, the events and attitudes that led to its occurrence and some information about the significance of the victim/s. (P4.2) 10. Group work: Create a poster encouraging university students to participate in one of the civil rights protests. You will need to consider the words and pictures that will motivate your audience to become involved. (P4.2) 11. The traditional Negro spiritual, ‘We shall overcome’, became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. Divide the class into groups and allocate each group one of its verses to perform, accompanied by a well-known recording of it, such as that of Joan Baez. (P4.1)

144

Retrospective

8

The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

KEY CONCEPTS

Key concepts relevant to this chapter are: W communism W democracy W racism KEY DATES

The areas of focus for this author-developed case study are: W W W W

Kennedy in November 1963 Death of a president: Dallas, Texas, 22 November 1963 Impact and aftermath of the Kennedy assassination The Warren Report — evidence and conspiracy theories

1961 T January John F. Kennedy becomes 35th US President 1963 T 22 November Assassination of President Kennedy T 24 November Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey Oswald T 25 November President’s funeral 1964 September Warren Commission Report published

T 24

1967 T DA Jim Garrison charges Clay Shaw with conspiring to kill Kennedy 1976 T September

House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) appointed to review evidence 1979

T Committee

delivers conclusions 1991

T Oliver

Stone releases movie JFK 1992

T President

John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act

Source 8.1 A famous photograph of the Kennedy family at the funeral on 25 November 1963 of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. John Kennedy Jnr, on his third birthday, salutes his father’s coffin as it leaves St Matthew’s Cathedral. * This author-developed case study of Kennedy’s assassination provides some background from which to embark W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on the study of the History Extension topic onChapter Kennedy’s8presidency.

145

Introduction Where were you when you heard the news of . . . ?

assassination W the murder of someone important, usually someone powerful in the political world. The assassin’s purpose might be the pursuit of an ideological or political goal or revenge.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What does source 8.3 indicate about Walter Cronkite’s attitude at the time of delivering the news bulletin announcing Kennedy’s death? 2. Where were you and what were you doing when you heard news of the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001? How did you feel about this? 3. Survey five people of different age groups, asking them to name two events (other than 9/11) that they remember as being momentous historical events. Ask what it was about these events that made them so memorable. Share your findings with the class.

146

Retrospective

There are events in world history that are so dramatic, unexpected, shocking and/or momentous that people for years afterwards remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news, and how they and others around them felt and reacted. On 11 September 2001, there was the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. On 31 August 1997, there was the car accident in Paris that resulted in the death of Princess Diana. In November 1989, people all over the world watched in amazement at the fall of the Wall that had divided Berlin for over 28 years. On 5 September 1972, members of the Black September organisation took hostage, and ultimately murdered, 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the Olympic village in Munich. On 22 November 1963, at 12.31 pm, in Dallas, Texas, there was the assassination of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Source 8.2 Photograph of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, New York, on 11 September 2001

Source 8.3 An extract from a 2003 interview on CBS’s The Early Show in which renowned US broadcaster Walter Cronkite, around the fortieth anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, recalls making the announcement on 22 November 1963

Most people old enough to remember the third week of November in 1963 can recall the exact moment they heard that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. And for millions, the word came from CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite . . . [The soap opera] ‘As The World Turns’ was interrupted by a CBS special bulletin. The anchor, Walter Cronkite, said: ‘Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.’ . . . [Cronkite’s] composure wavered only once: at the moment when the unthinkable was confirmed . . . His report: ‘From Dallas, Texas, the flash — apparently official — President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central standard time, 2 p.m. Eastern standard time, some 38 minutes ago.’ Cronkite tells The Early Show, ‘My gosh, the president’s dead. John Kennedy, this young president, is cut down, is dead. And it hit me pretty hard, just for that moment, while I gathered myself together, and went on again, beginning to think about, now where do we go?’ . . . Extract from CBS News, ‘Cronkite Remembers JFK’, New York, 20 November 2003.

Source 8.4 A photograph from 22 November 1963 of New Yorkers crowding around a convertible to hear breaking news on the radio of the assassination of the President SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. From sources 8.3 and 8.4, describe the general reaction to news of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. 2. Ask people aged at least 50 how they heard the news of Kennedy’s assassination and what they felt about it. Source 8.5 Photograph showing President Kennedy with his son, John, in the West Wing colonnade of the White House on 10 October 1963

communism W a political ideology and economic system, developed by Karl Marx (1818–1883), in which people share equally the ownership of their society’s resources, contribute to its work according to their abilities and are provided for according to their neeeds

SOURCE QUESTION

White House photographers took sources 8.5 and 8.6 in the White House in October 1963. How do you think critics of Kennedy would have reacted to these photographs?

Kennedy in November 1963 President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the thirty-fifth president of the Unit ed States. He belonged to the Democratic Party and came from a wealthy and powerful Massachusetts family. In November 1963, Kennedy had been in office for almost three years and was beginning to campaign for a second term. He projected an image of style, charm, wit, good humour and intelligence. At 43, he was a relatively young president, married to a glamorous young wife, Jacqueline, with two young children, Caroline and John. Many Americans found Kennedy to be an inspiring leader. They admired the values in his 1961 inaugural address and in his ‘New Frontier’ program; his leadership skills, especially at the time of the 1962 confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union known as the Cuban Missile Crisis; and his determination to have an American on the moon by the end of the decade. Kennedy was not universally popular. Many people in the southern states of the US disliked him, partly because of his support for the Civil Rights Movement. Many right-wing groups there (and elsewhere) judged him to be ‘soft on’ communism. Source 8.6 Photograph showing President Kennedy signing the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the White House on 7 October 1963

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

147

Death of a president: Dallas, Texas, 22 November 1963 John Birch Society W an ultra right-wing society founded by Robert Welch in 1958. Named for John Birch, who had been killed by Chinese communists in 1945, it was against communism, liberalism, civil rights, the UN and John Kennedy. In 1964, it employed 200 people and had a budget of US$3 million at its disposal.

Source 8.7 Handbill entitled ‘Wanted for Treason’ that Kennedy critics distributed in Dallas at the time of the Kennedy visit

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What was the traditional use of ‘Wanted’ posters? 2. What evidence does source 8.7 provide of the author’s attitude towards Kennedy? 3. Which groups in the United States might have supported this viewpoint? Which groups might have been hostile to it? 4. What arguments should a newspaper editor consider when deciding whether or not to publish material of this kind?

148

Retrospective

President Kennedy’s two-day trip to Texas in November 1963 was part of a strategy, in the build-up to the 1964 presidential election, to improve his popularity in the South. His Vice President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, a proud Texan and former senator for that state, accompanied Kennedy. At the time of the presidential visit, the John Birch Society placed an antiKennedy advertisement in the Dallas Morning News. Other right-wing groups distributed leaflets labelling Kennedy a ‘traitor’ for his attempts to improve the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union and Cuba. The Citizens’ Council of Dallas, dominated by businessmen active in the oil industry, was very powerful. It wanted the US democracy to serve its interests. It resented Kennedy’s conciliatory attitude towards communist powers and his agreement with the Soviet Union to ban nuclear weapons testing.

On 22 November, Kennedy’s day began with breakfast at Fort Worth, a seven-minute plane ride from Dallas. He discussed the dangers he might face and commented that the Secret Service could not really protect him against an assassin: ‘All one had to do was get a high building some day with a telescopic rifle’. Source 8.8 Photograph showing President and Mrs Kennedy on their arrival at Love Field airport, Dallas, Texas, on 22 November 1963

SOURCE QUESTION

What caption would you create for this photograph in view of the fact that Kennedy was assassinated less than an hour later? What would this reveal about your perspective?

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

149

Source 8.9 Photograph showing President and Mrs Kennedy in the presidential limousine with Governor and Mrs Connally, shortly before the assassination

After a flight to Dallas and a motorcade through the town, the President was due to go to the Dallas Trade Mart for a luncheon with over 2500 supporters. The presidential party arrived at Love Field airport, Dallas, at 11.38 am. After meeting with local officials, the group took their seats for the motorcade, which comprised over twenty cars and buses interspersed with an escort of Dallas police on motorcycles. The first car carried Dallas police observers. Then came the ‘lead’ car with police officials and Secret Service agents. After this was the presidential car — an open-top Lincoln limousine. President and Mrs Kennedy sat in the back seat, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife sat in front of them and the driver and another Secret Service agent occupied the front seat. Eight Secret Service agents (two on each of the running boards) travelled with White House officials in the next ‘follow-up’ car. Vice President and Mrs Johnson were in the next car and after them their ‘follow-up’ car and the remainder of the group. At 11.50 am, the motorcade set off. Many workers had come out at lunchtime to see the President. People crowded the Dallas pavements, eagerly waiting for the motorcade to pass.

SOURCE QUESTION

What does this photograph indicate about the difficulties involved in ensuring the President’s safety?

150

Retrospective

Source 8.10 Extracts from the 1964 Warren Commission Report (see page 158) describing the events and journey of the motorcade through Dallas

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Use the information in source 8.10 to create a timeline of the sequence of events it relates. 2. What information does source 8.10 provide regarding the nature and source of the wounds sustained by President Kennedy and Governor Connally? 3. Which witnesses does the source cite and what does it indicate is common to the experience of all of them? 4. What information does the source provide about the efforts and conclusions of the doctors treating Kennedy? 5. Which parts of this account appear to be fact and which opinion? 6. What do you think was the writer’s aim in the information provided on events in Parkland Memorial Hospital? 7. Go to the website for this book and access the Warren Commission weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii). Use it to read the full account of the motorcade and events at Parkland Hospital. What additional information does this provide?

In the downtown area, large crowds of spectators gave the President a tremendous reception . . . Mrs. Connally, elated by the reception, turned to President Kennedy and said, ‘Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.’ The President replied, ‘That is very obvious.’ At 12:30 p.m., e.s.t., as the President’s open limousine proceeded at approximately 11 miles per hour along Elm Street toward the Triple Underpass, shots fired from a rifle mortally wounded President Kennedy and seriously injured Governor Connally. One bullet passed through the President’s neck; a subsequent bullet, which was lethal, shattered the right side of his skull. Governor Connally sustained bullet wounds in his back, the right side of his chest, right wrist, and left thigh . . . Mrs. John F. Kennedy, on the left of the rear seat of the limousine, looked toward her left and waved to the crowds along the route. Soon after the motorcade turned onto Elm Street, she heard a sound similar to a motorcycle noise and a cry from Governor Connally, which caused her to look to her right. On turning she saw a quizzical look on her husband’s face as he raised his left hand to his throat. Mrs. Kennedy then heard a second shot and saw the President’s skull torn open under the impact of the bullet. As she cradled her mortally wounded husband, Mrs. Kennedy cried, ‘Oh, my God, they have shot my husband. I love you, Jack.’ Governor Connally was certain that he was hit by the second shot, which he stated he did not hear ... Roy Kellerman, in the right front seat of the limousine, heard a report like a firecracker pop. Turning to his right in the direction of the noise, Kellerman heard the President say ‘My God, I am hit,’ and saw both of the President’s hands move up toward his neck. . . . Kellerman grabbed his microphone and radioed ahead to the lead car, ‘We are hit. Get us to the hospital immediately.’ Special Agent Hill . . . jumped from the follow-up car and ran to the President’s automobile. At about the time he reached the President’s automobile, Hill heard a second shot, approximately 5 seconds after the first, which removed a portion of the President’s head. In the final instant of the assassination, the Presidential motorcade began a race to Parkland Memorial Hospital, approximately 4 miles from the Texas School Book Depository Building . . . the Presidential limousine arrived at the emergency entrance of the Parkland Hospital at about 12:35 p.m. . . . In the absence of any neurological, muscular, or heart response, the doctors concluded that efforts to revive the President were hopeless . . . At approximately 1 p.m., after last rites were administered to the President by Father Oscar L. Huber, Dr. Clark pronounced the President dead . . . the time was fixed at 1 p.m., as an approximation, since it was impossible to determine the precise moment when life left the President. President Kennedy could have survived the neck injury, but the head wound was fatal. From a medical viewpoint, President Kennedy was alive when he arrived at Parkland Hospital; the doctors observed that he had a heart beat and was making some respiratory efforts. But his condition was hopeless, and the extraordinary efforts of the doctors to save him could not help but to have been unavailing . . . At approximately 1:20 p.m., Vice President Johnson was notified by O’Donnell that President Kennedy was dead . . . Extracts from ‘The Assassination’, chapter 2 of the Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission report), US Government Printing Office, 1964.

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

151

Source 8.11 A 1967 aerial photograph of Dealey Plaza in Dallas where the President’s motorcade travelled. It shows the Texas School Depository, a square brick building at top right (with the Hertz sign on the roof), and Elm Street, in front of it, leading to the Triple Underpass under the freeway SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Use sources 8.10 and 8.11 to work out the route the presidential motorcade took on 22 November 1963. 2. Identify and explain the actions you think security personnel needed to take to ensure the President’s protection along this route. Source 8.12 A frame from the Zapruder film (see page 160) showing President Kennedy reacting to the first shot that hit him in the neck

SOURCE QUESTION

In what ways does source 8.12 support the description provided in source 8.10? Kennedy had no chance of surviving his head wound. Hospital staff declared him dead at 1 pm CST (Central Standard Time). At 1.33 pm CST, White House Acting Press Secretary, Malcolm Kilduff, announced officially that the President was dead. At 2 pm CST, Secret Service men placed Kennedy’s body in a coffin and delivered it to the presidential plane, Air Force One, at Love Field. Shortly afterwards, Vice President Johnson took the oath of office, making him the

152

Retrospective

thirty-sixth President of the United States (see source 8.13). The plane then departed Love Field for the journey back to Washington DC, where doctors at the Bethesda Naval Hospital would perform an autopsy on the President’s body. Dallas police had protested the removal of the body. They argued that Texas law required that the Dallas City Coroner perform an autopsy on the body before it left Texas jurisdiction. From the time of the assassination onwards, the actions and motivations of everyone around Kennedy that day potentially became the subject of suspicion, analysis and controversy. In the years that followed, people came to question the role of the Secret Service; the actions of the doctors who treated Kennedy; the accuracy of the autopsy report; the rationale for not having it performed in Dallas; the nature and efficiency of police and government enquiries; and the use made of eyewitness testimony.

The impact and aftermath of the Kennedy assassination The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy had a similar impact on the public to that of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. People sat watching their TV sets for the latest updates on events. Regular programming ceased. Television stations embarked on what became four days of virtually around the clock coverage of the impact of the assassination and hastily assembled tributes to Kennedy. Many (even those who had not been Kennedy supporters), both in the United States and around the world, felt a sense of shock and loss and felt that the world would not be the same again. People had difficulty in thinking of Lyndon Johnson as the new President of the United States. Source 8.13 Photograph taken on 22 November 1963 showing Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One at Love Field, Texas, with his wife ‘Ladybird’ Johnson shown at left and Jacqueline Kennedy at right

SOURCE QUESTION

What messages could be taken from this photograph?

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

153

Source 8.14 A photograph showing New York commuters studying the newspapers following the shock assassination of the President

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What could you conclude from source 8.14 about the way the people of New York felt about the President’s death? 2. What do you think was the photographer’s purpose in taking the photo?

Lee Harvey Oswald The Dallas Police Department (DPD) arrested and later released several suspects. At about 1.50 pm, 80 minutes after the assassination, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald in a cinema. They believed he had killed a policeman, J. D. Tippit, over an hour earlier. When they learned that Oswald worked in the Texas School Book Depository, from where witnesses reported shots had been fired, they began to suspect him of the Kennedy assassination. They found a rifle and spent bullets on the sixth floor and claimed that these were Oswald’s. At 7 pm on 22 November, the DPD charged Lee Harvey Oswald with the murder of Tippit and, with FBI and Secret Service representatives, interrogated him for several hours over Kennedy’s assassination. Oswald claimed he was a ‘patsy’ — that he was innocent and had been framed. It was not until days later that Captain Fritz, the main interrogator, wrote up notes of his interrogation of Oswald. There were no written transcripts or voice recordings of Oswald’s interrogation. Source 8.15 A photograph showing Oswald in police custody on 23 November after he was arrested and interrogated in relation to the assassination of President Kennedy. The photograph shows him with a cut on his forehead and a blackened eye.

SOURCE QUESTION

What questions would you ask the Dallas Police Department in response to this photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald?

154

Retrospective

Oswald never came to trial on charges related to the assassination. On 24 November 1963, police (with NBC providing live TV coverage of the event) were transporting him via the DPD basement car park to the Dallas County Jail. Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, came forward and shot Oswald in the stomach. Oswald died following surgery at the Parkland Memorial Hospital and was buried on 25 November 1963, the same day as the President. In the absence of anyone else, journalists served as his pallbearers.

Source 8.16 A photograph showing the scene (broadcast live) in the DPD car park as Jack Ruby (in right foreground) lunges forward to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald

SOURCE QUESTION

What different responses might people have had to the event portrayed in source 8.16? Lee Harvey Oswald was 24 years old when he died. In early October 1963, he had gained temporary employment at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. On 22 November, he carried a long parcel into work. He said it was curtain rods. A work colleague later reported seeing Oswald by himself on the sixth floor of the Book Depository, 35 minutes before the assassination. Police, FBI and Secret Service sources suggested that he was emotionally troubled with passive–aggressive tendencies and had trained in the Marine Corps (from where he was dismissed as ‘undesirable’). Sources also suggested that he spoke Russian, had lived in the Soviet Union for nearly three years and attempted unsuccessfully to gain Soviet citizenship, had tried to murder US General Edwin Walker (a member of the John Birch Society) and was a committed supporter of Cuban communist leader, Fidel Castro. The implication was that he had assassinated Kennedy because of his own mental instability, or because he wanted to show support for the Soviet Union, or because he was one of many people angered that Kennedy approved a 1961 CIA attempt to overthrow Castro.

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

155

Source 8.17 Extracts from the 1964 Warren Commission Report (see page 158) outlining parts of the evidence regarding Lee Harvey Oswald’s movements around the time of the President’s assassination on 22 November 1963

Additional testimony linking Oswald with the point from which the shots were fired was provided by the testimony of Charles Givens, who was the last known employee to see Oswald inside the [Texas School Book Depository] prior to the assassination. During the morning of November 22, Givens was working with the floor-laying crew in the southwest section of the sixth floor. At about 11:45 a.m. the floor-laying crew used both elevators to come down from the sixth floor. The employees raced the elevators to the first floor. Givens saw Oswald standing at the gate on the fifth floor as the elevator went by. Givens testified that after reaching the first floor, ‘I discovered I left my cigarettes in my jacket pocket upstairs, and I took the elevator back upstairs to get my jacket with my cigarettes in it.’ He saw Oswald, a clipboard in hand, walking from the southeast corner of the sixth floor toward the elevator . . . Givens said to Oswald, ‘Boy are you going downstairs? ... It’s near lunch time.’ Oswald said, ‘No, sir. When you get downstairs, close the gate to the elevator.’ Oswald was referring to the west elevator which operates by pushbutton and only with the gate closed. Givens said, ‘Okay,’ and rode down in the east elevator. When he reached the first floor, the west elevator — the one with the gate was not there. Givens thought this was about 11:55 a.m. None of the Depository employees is known to have seen Oswald again until after the shooting. The significance of Givens’ observation that Oswald was carrying his clipboard became apparent on December 2, 1963, when an employee, Frankie Kaiser, found a clipboard hidden by book cartons in the northwest corner of the sixth floor at the west wall a few feet from where the rifle had been found. This clipboard had been made by Kaiser and had his name on it. Kaiser identified it as the clipboard which Oswald had appropriated from him when Oswald came to work at the Depository. Three invoices on this clipboard, each dated November 22, were for Scott-Foresman books, located on the first and sixth floors. Oswald had not filled any of the three orders . . . Extracts from ‘The Assassin’, chapter 4 of the Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission report), US Government Printing Office, 1964.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What is the message of source 8.17 and what evidence does it provide in support of this? 2. Identify the Warren Commission Report evidence in source 8.17 supporting the view that Oswald assassinated Kennedy. Visit the website for this book and click on the Warren Commission weblink for this chapter. What other supporting evidence did the Warren Commission Report provide? In particular, check what it said about: (a) Oswald’s shooting ability and his willingness to use violence (b) the weapon used and its links to Oswald (c) inaccuracies in the testimony Oswald gave during his interrogation (d) the reliability of the information provided.

156

Retrospective

The funeral of President John Kennedy President John F. Kennedy’s funeral was an international event with representatives of 90 countries, including heads of state, key politicians and members of royal families all in attendance. His casket was placed in the East Room of the White House early on Saturday 23 November and family members, friends, foreign diplomats and politicians came there to pay their respects. On Sunday 24 November, Kennedy’s body lay in state at the US Capitol so that members of the public could file past. Despite bitterly cold weather, 250 000 people waited as long as 10 hours for their opportunity to show their respect. President Johnson declared 25 November — the day of the funeral — a National Day of Mourning, so that only people in essential or emergency services were expected to go to work. One million people waited along the funeral route and millions more followed the proceedings on their television screens. A military guard took the casket first back to the White House, then on to St Matthew’s Cathedral for a requiem mass (see source 8.1, page 145) and finally on to the burial site at Arlington National Cemetery. Jacqueline Kennedy lit an eternal flame to burn continuously over her husband’s grave. Source 8.18 A photograph of Kennedy’s horse-drawn casket and funeral procession arriving at Arlington National Cemetery on 25 November 1963. Behind the casket was a riderless horse, ‘Black Jack’, with the boots placed backwards in the stirrups, symbolic of the death of a fallen leader — one of many elements modelled on the April 1865 funeral of Abraham Lincoln.

SOURCE QUESTION

What image of Kennedy does this source suggest and what would be the value of linking him to Lincoln with the inclusion of the riderless horse following the casket? (Read more about ‘Black Jack’ by accessing the website for this book and clicking on the Black Jack weblinks for this chapter.)

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

157

The Warren Report — evidence and conspiracy theories

conspiracy W a secret agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act

158

Retrospective

On 29 November 1963, President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) appointed a ninemember commission, headed by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination. On 24 September 1964, the Commission submitted 26 volumes, known as the Warren Report, containing its findings and sources of evidence (see sources 8.10 and 8.17 for extracts). President Johnson ordered that the Warren Commission files remain sealed until 2039 — that is, 75 years later. The Warren Report concluded that: W Lee Harvey Oswald had killed Kennedy using the 6.5 mm MannlicherCarcano rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository W he had acted alone W Oswald had fired three shots, one of which had missed. The three bullets had all been fired from behind Kennedy and from the Texas School Book Depository. W the bullet that first wounded Kennedy had struck him in the back, exited his throat and had then gone on to hit Governor Connally in the back, from where it travelled through Connally’s chest and right wrist before settling in his left thigh W another bullet was the one which caused Kennedy’s fatal head wound W one bullet missed its target W the Secret Service had failed to take essential security precautions and as a result had facilitated the assassination W the open car in which the President travelled had not provided him with any protection and he should have been provided with an enclosed bulletproof car W Oswald, while trying to make a getaway, had killed Officer J. D. Tippit W Jack Ruby had shot Oswald in order to save Jacqueline Kennedy the ordeal of Oswald’s trial W Ruby had not, as some conspiracy theorists claimed, acted to prevent Oswald revealing that he had been hired by someone else to do the killing W Ruby had not needed any help to get into the underground car park where he killed Oswald. He had just walked down the ramp. Jack Ruby’s murder of Lee Harvey Oswald meant that there was no court case through which evidence about Oswald’s actions could be put forward and tested. Conspiracy theories flourished in the years following the assassination. Critics accused the Warren Commission of having failed in its methodology and failed to address the issue of why government officials had destroyed or not retained some potentially key evidence. For example, staff members organised the cleaning of both Connally’s suit and the presidential limousine before forensic experts could examine them. Some autopsy photographs have been lost, as has the official record of Lee Harvey Oswald’s service in the Marine Corps. Over time, a number of key questions took hold in the public imagination: W Was Lee Harvey Oswald guilty or just a ‘patsy’ as he had claimed? W Had gunshots come from more than one direction and therefore from more than one shooter? W Did Jack Ruby kill Oswald to prevent him revealing other people’s involvement in the assassination? The growth of conspiracy theories challenging the Commission’s findings was a symptom of the public’s increasing scepticism — especially in the Vietnam War era — about the degree to which the US government could be

dictabelt W a device that records sound for playback at a later time

Source 8.19 Diagram included as an exhibit for the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1976. The diagram indicates the Warren Report’s finding that a single bullet had caused all of Governor Connally’s wounds and one of Kennedy’s.

trusted to tell the truth. This trend also reflected the fact that many people did not believe one person alone could have carried out the assassination. In September 1976, the US House of Representatives created the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) to review the evidence and conclusions of the initial investigation. Its initial findings supported the Warren Commission view that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. Many of its findings differed from those of the Warren Commission. It concluded that: W Kennedy’s death was the result of a conspiracy (possibly from within the Mafia), not the desire of a lone assassin W there were four shots fired and that one of these, coming from the area known as the ‘grassy knoll’, did not reach its target W the recording from the dictabelt of a nearby patrolman supported this to the level of 95 per cent certainty. (Note that, in 1992, the US government accepted critics’ view that this evidence was ‘unreliable’.) W Jack Ruby had possibly been hired to make a ‘hit’ on Oswald. Ruby had links with the Mafia and therefore a possible motive to prevent Oswald from talking. W Ruby entered the DPD car park from somewhere other than the ramp and was perhaps assisted by someone on the police force itself W Ruby had frequently made telephone contact with and visited someone in communist Cuba in the weeks preceding the assassination and had later lied about this to the Warren Commission W the CIA, the FBI and the Warren Commission had all failed to investigate all the evidence and theories that might have revealed the motives for and perpetrator(s) of the assassination and, in the case of the latter two, had failed to supply all the evidence available to them W security for the motorcade had been inadequate W the autopsy of Kennedy’s body had not been either sufficiently thorough or well-documented W photographic evidence indicated that Kennedy must have been hit by a bullet coming from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, even if the gunman’s vision would have been obscured by an oak tree at the time the shot was fired W that one bullet had caused Kennedy’s back and throat wound as well as all of Connally’s injuries W that Oswald killed Tippit.

Governor Connally

President Kennedy

Texas School Book Depository

SOURCE QUESTION

What is the lower part of the diagram shown in source 8.19 indicating in relation to the ‘single bullet’?

Grassy knoll area

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

159

Jim Garrison’s 1967 conspiracy case In 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison charged Clay Shaw, a prominent local businessman, with having conspired to kill President Kennedy. The ensuing court case is the only one in which anyone has ever been tried on any charge related to Kennedy’s assassination. The case attracted huge publicity and provided more sources of enquiry for conspiracy buffs. While the jury acquitted Shaw, the case brought to public attention a key piece of evidence — the Zapruder film.

The Zapruder film

Visit the website of this book and click on the Zapruder film weblink for this chapter, to view each frame.

160

Retrospective

On 22 November 1963, Abraham Zapruder, owner of a Dallas clothing store, positioned himself on a concrete pergola in the area of Elm Street known as the grassy knoll. This elevated position enabled him to get a good view of the Kennedy motorcade and record it through the zoom lens of his Bell and Howell movie camera. The Zapruder film, effectively an 8 mm colour home movie, contains the clearest and most complete known footage of the assassination itself. It comprises 486 frames, each lasting about one-eighteenth of a second (see source 8.12). The film follows the presidential limousine turning into Elm Street until the disappearance of the motorcade under the railway overpass. The sequence lasts 26.6 seconds and the president’s car is visible in 18.7 seconds of these. At the time Kennedy received the fatal head shot, the car was virtually level with Zapruder. Researchers have since labelled every frame using the letter ‘Z’ followed by the relevant number in the frames’ sequence. Observers of the film argue about frames Z140 to Z313. Some say the film proves the presence of two or more gunmen; others support the Warren Commission’s interpretation that it shows evidence of only one. The HSCA identified four places where the film showed evidence of shots being fired: Z157–161, Z187–191, Z295–296 and finally the head shot at Z312–320. Had there been a lone gunman, as the Warren Report concluded, the film shows that he would have had between 5.6 and 9 seconds to get off three shots, depending upon when the first one was actually fired. The Warren Commission believed the first shot came at Z210 and that the second shot failed. This would mean that the gunman had fired all three shots in 5.6 seconds — something others argued required a better rifle than a Mannlicher-Carcano and a more skilled marksman than Lee Harvey Oswald. In the Clay Shaw court case, Jim Garrison used frames Z313–320 to argue that the direction of Kennedy’s response to the shot showed that it had not come from behind — thus suggesting the presence of another gunman on the grassy knoll. Zapruder originally sold his film to Life magazine for $US150 000 (now nearly one million US dollars). Life sold it back to him for $1 in 1975 and the US government purchased it from the Zapruder family for $16 000 000 in 1998. The film, deemed ‘culturally significant’, has been entered into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Since 1963, writers, researchers, makers of films and documentaries have all addressed the public’s ongoing interest in the subject of who had killed Kennedy and what had been the motivation. Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK based its plot on information provided in the HSCA report and also on Jim Garrison’s 1988 book On the Trail of the Assassins and Jim Marrs’ 1989 book Crossfire: the Plot that Killed Kennedy. Critics panned its allegations of a conspiracy involving Lyndon Johnson, the FBI, the CIA, the Mafia, pro Castro supporters and weapons manufacturers.

Source 8.20 Extract from Jennet Conant’s 1991 article ‘The man who shot JFK’, in which film director Oliver Stone provides his interpretation of the story

Source 8.21 Diagram showing the path of the single bullet as interpreted by conspiracy theorists who labelled it the ‘magic bullet’

[The] Kennedy assassination remains one of the murkier chapters of American history. Almost all the crucial ‘facts’ are open to dispute, with everyone from coroners who were on the scene to forensic specialists from across the country arguing over the veracity of the autopsy photos and the correct interpretation of Abraham Zapruder’s horrifying 5.6-second film of the mortal wounding of Kennedy. Much of what passes for evidence — such as the ‘magic bullet’ that struck Kennedy, changed directions twice and then hit Governor John Connally Jnr., who’d been sitting in front of Kennedy — defies logic . . . If there was more than one shooter, there was a conspiracy of some kind, and consequently also a cover-up . . . ‘I believe the Warren Commission [finding] is a great myth, and in order to fight a myth, maybe you have to create another one,’ says [JFK director Oliver] Stone. ‘The Warren Commission [report] was accepted at the time of its release for its soothing Olympian conclusion that a lone nut committed this murder. I suppose our movie is a countermyth: that the man was killed by larger political forces, with more nefarious and sinister objectives’ . . . From Jennet Conant, ‘The man who shot JFK’, in GQ magazine, January 1992, pp. 61–7.

6

SOURCE QUESTION 5 4

Governor Connally

3

2 President Kennedy 1 The ‘magic bullet’: 1 enters Kennedy’s back, 14.5 cm below collar 2 exits through knot in tie 3 enters Connally’s back near right armpit 4 exits right side of chest 5 shatters right wrist 6 wounds left thigh.

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Why do you think this gained the label of the ‘magic bullet’ theory? 2. What does this indicate that some people believed in relation to this aspect of the Warren Commission’s

What, according to source 8.20, were Oliver Stone’s goals in making his 1991 movie JFK? How would this affect the value of JFK as a historical source? Conspiracy theorists continued to question the validity of the Warren Commission’s findings. They generally came to believe one or more of the following: W Lee Harvey Oswald had either not committed the assassination or had not acted alone. They stated that he lacked the shooting ability to fire three shots within six to nine seconds and have two of them hit a moving target W one shot had come from in front of the limousine perhaps from the grassy knoll W several bystanders on the grassy knoll claimed to have seen gunsmoke there and smelled gunpowder and believed that a shot had been fired from there. This would at least mean that Oswald had had an accomplice. W that it was ludicrous to think that there had been a ‘magic bullet’ that could travel in a number of different directions to inflict the damage that it had supposedly inflicted on Kennedy and Connally (see source 8.21) W the autopsy report had covered up evidence of a large wound in the right rear of Kennedy’s head. Many members of the Parkland Hospital staff and security personnel had apparently witnessed this. The location of the wound would prove that Kennedy had been shot from the front. W Oswald had been ‘set up’ over a period of months to prevent suspicion falling on the real assassin(s). This had been done by having people posing as Oswald to create the impression that he was pro-communist and hostile to Kennedy’s 1961 attempt to overthrow the Cuban communist leader, Fidel Castro. W the Zapruder film shows evidence of there having been more than three shots W officials had cooperated in a cover-up of the nature of the assassination and the identity of the assassin in order to maintain the illusion that only one assassin had killed Kennedy. In 1992, Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act (the JFK Act). Its purpose was to address public concerns that the government was hiding the truth about Kennedy’s assassination, especially in view of the allegations made in Oliver Stone’s movie JFK. Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

161

Source 8.22 The words of the reprise of the theme song of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s 1960 musical Camelot, based on Terence Hanbury White’s novel The Once and Future King. King Arthur, facing battle, speaks to a young boy whom he charges to carry on his legacy.

Congress addressed these concerns by advancing the release date of sources of evidence that would allow the public to decide for itself. All remaining documents will be released by 2017. In 1998, the Assassination Records Review Board reported this had made considerable progress in addressing the ‘excessive secrecy of the past’ and restoring public confidence in the government. In the mid twenty-first century, the Kennedy Library will release an oral history of the event that Jacqueline Kennedy made shortly before her death in 1994.

Postscript: ‘Camelot’ and the shaping of history

Jacqueline Kennedy was determined that history portray her husband as a heroic president. She invited journalist Theodore H. White to write up an interview with her for publication in Life magazine. The interview, on 29 November 1963, took place over four hours at her home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The theme of the interview was that Kennedy’s presiARTHUR: dency had been ‘one brief Each evening, from December to December, shining moment’ in US Before you drift to sleep upon your cot, history. The phrase came Think back on all the tales that you remember from the theme song of Of Camelot. the popular 1960 musical Ask ev’ry person if he’s heard the story, And tell it strong and clear if he has not, Camelot (see source 8.22). That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory This play, based on the novel Called Camelot . . . The Once and Future King, Camelot! Camelot! depicted the noble ideals Now say it out with pride and joy! that united the legendary TOM: ruler, King Arthur, and his Camelot! Camelot! Knights of the Round Table. ARTHUR: At 2 am, after taking Yes, Camelot, my boy! 45 minutes to put the story Where once it never rained till after sundown, together, White rang through By eight a.m. the morning fog had flown . . . the article to the Life editors. Don’t let it be forgot They had been holding up That once there was a spot publication, at overtime costs For one brief shining moment that was known of $30 000 an hour, so that As Camelot. the story, ‘For President Ken©1960 Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe For Australia And New Zealand: Alfred nedy: An Epilogue’, could be Publishing (Australia) Pty Ltd. included in their next issue. White later admitted that SOURCE QUESTIONS he had allowed his work to be the vehicle for Jacqueline Kennedy’s attempt 1. What message might to shape the historical interpretation of John Kennedy and his presidency. In people take from this the ensuing years, many writers viewed Kennedy through the rose-coloured song in relation to glasses of the ‘Camelot view’. This view was well received in the atmosphere Kennedy’s presidency and of emotive pro-Kennedy nostalgia that, after the assassination, came to perassassination? meate many interpretations of the Kennedy presidency. For many historians, 2. How would the the question of how and why Kennedy died developed into the question of to circumstances of what extent emotional responses to the tragic manner of his death mitigated Kennedy’s death influence against objective analyses of the nature of the Kennedy presidency. people’s willingness to

accept this message?

162

Retrospective

Meeting objectives and outcomes Key features, issues, individuals and events

P1.1 and P1.2

1. Describe the role of each of the following in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. (P1.1) (a) Lyndon Baines Johnson (b) Jacqueline Kennedy (c) Lee Harvey Oswald (d) Jack Ruby (e) Earl Warren 2. If you were asked to write a news article for the first anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, what features and/or issues related to this event would you want to highlight? Give reasons for your answer. (P1.2) P2.1

Change and continuity over time

3. Research and report on the extent to which there has been change and continuity in the official findings on the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. P3.1–P3.5

The process of historical inquiry

4. What questions do you consider to have been essential to ask (and investigate) in relation to the assassination of President John Kennedy? (P3.1) 5. Copy and complete the following table to identify and evaluate five different types of sources on the Kennedy assassination. Be sure to provide detailed information under each heading. (P3.2–P3.5) Source

Content

Author and perspective

Usefulness

Reliability

6. Collect 10–20 visual sources that you can use to explain the main events related to the Kennedy assassination. Present your selection, with appropriate oral commentary, to a small group. (P3.5) 7. Conduct your own investigation of sources on the Kennedy assassination and answer the following question: To what extent does the evidence support the view that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, a lone gunman? (P3.1, P3.5) 8. The Warren Commission Report concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy and that, in doing so, he had acted alone. You can view the Report on the US Government’s National Archives website. Go to the website for this book and click on the Warren Commission Report weblink for this chapter. Work in pairs or small groups to investigate different sections of this Report using the following guidelines.

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

163

(a) Click on ‘Chapter 3’ and use the references shown in brackets below to find out the main points it provides in answer to the following questions. (i) What led the Commission to conclude that the shots had come from the Texas Book Depository? (pages 61, 63–5, 68, 70–1) (ii) What was the evidence that shots had also come from other areas and why did the Warren Commission reject this? (pages 68, 70–2, 76) (iii) What evidence did investigators produce regarding the weaponry and bullets used in the assassination and where did they find it? What did the Warren Commission conclude from this? (pages 79, 81, 84–95) (b) Click on ‘Chapter 4’ and use the references shown in brackets below to find out the main points it provides in answer to the following questions. (i) What led the Commission to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald was the owner of the assassination weapon and that he had used it to kill Kennedy? (pages 118–19, 121–5, 127–31, 133–7) (ii) What was the importance of the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository and what evidence from there also seemed to incriminate Oswald? (pages 141, 143–7, 149, 152, 156) (iii) What did the Report state that Oswald did in between the assassination and his arrest? (pages 157, 159–63, 165–9, 171–2, 175–6, 178–80) (iv) What parts of Oswald’s testimony to the Dallas Police did the Warren Commission find to be untrue? (pages 180–3) (v) What information does the Report provide about Oswald’s ‘Prior Attempts to Kill’ and what was the significance of this? (pages 183–9) (vi) What did the Warren Commission conclude regarding Lee Harvey Oswald’s ability to assassinate the President using the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found at the Texas Book Depository? (pages 189–95) (c) Discussion topic: Based on your shared answers to these questions, if there had been a trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, which case do you think would have been easier to argue — the case for the defence or the case for the prosecution? Give reasons for your answer.

Communicating an understanding of history

P4.1, P4.2

9. Essay topic: Explain why the Kennedy assassination has remained a source of interest for many people. Your response should be about three A4 pages in length. Remember to incorporate appropriate historical terms and concepts. (P4.1, P4.2)

164

Retrospective

part2 The historical investigation PRINCIPAL FOCUS Students further develop relevant investigative, research and presentation skills that are the core of the historical inquiry process.

9

165

Retrospective

The historical investigation 166

9

The historical investigation The historical investigation that you undertake in Year 11 is an opportunity: W to choose a Modern History research topic that you are interested in learning more about W to interest other people in this topic by communicating what you have learned to someone else W to benefit yourself because, along the way, you will pick up the skills and techniques that will make you a good researcher and essay writer W to gain an experience that will help you with your HSC studies. It will be especially useful to students who want to develop the skills needed for the History Extension course, where a historical investigation makes up 80 per cent of the assessment mark.

Getting started — choosing a topic You need to start with a history topic that will help you develop a good question. Many libraries have copies of books and/or magazines that provide a year-by-year overview of historical events and issues. Look through these to get an idea of what you find interesting and what could provide a good question. You can also develop a topic that comes from one of the case studies you cover in Year 11 (pages 1–164 of this book) or a topic that deals with aspects of the Preliminary Course core study ‘The world at the beginning of the twentieth century’ (pages 177–208). Think about the kinds of things that interest you. Are you interested in: W biographies of controversial historical figures? W a significant historical event? W the role of an individual in a specific historical event? W a thematic approach? W an investigation of a historical site? W how the media has constructed an aspect of the modern world? W an aspect of a particular society? W a particular historical debate?

A good history topic history W the study of the past to investigate, record and interpret it

You are researching history so you need to think about what makes a suitable ‘history’ topic. The Modern History syllabus requires that, in your historical investigation, you: W ‘develop a view about historical issues’ W ‘identify different historical perspectives and interpretations’ and W ‘develop and support a historical argument’. So you need to develop a topic that gives you the scope to do these things.

historians W people who are trained to investigate the past. The term is usually used nowadays to describe someone who is a professional historian with a number of degrees in this subject.

It’s helpful to choose a topic that incorporates an issue on which historians have differing views, for example: W whether or not someone was a good leader W the factors that ‘caused’ or led to a particular event W the significance of a historical event W how important someone’s role was in bringing about a particular event W the value/significance of a particular historical site W the significance of the media’s role in shaping people’s interpretation of a historical event/person/era W the significance of an aspect of a particular society W an evaluation of the arguments put forward in a particular historical debate. Topics that are usually not appropriate for the historical investigation are those dealing with current or very recent events, conspiracy theories, celebrity scandals and, to state the obvious, topics on which there is insufficient information.

Coming up with a good question

Book covers depicting some areas of historical debate

A table summarising Bloom’s classification of thinking Level of thinking

When you are coming up with a question, it is helpful to know where it comes in the levels of thinking that Benjamin Bloom identified in his 1956 Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Bloom led a team of educational psychologists who developed a system for classifying the different levels of thinking. Bloom’s research showed that 95 per cent of the questions students were asked to answer only required them to show that they could memorise and recall information they had been taught. This meant that students were not being challenged and that they were missing out on developing their skills in higher level thinking. Bloom’s team identified levels from lowest to highest (see the table). Today’s educators and examiners are aware of the importance of developing higher order thinking skills and they think of this when they set questions and marking guidelines. To reach a particular level of thinking, it helps to know where you want to go and to set a question that will help you get there. The level of thinking you need to aim for in the question for your historical investigation will depend on: W the outcomes your teacher wants you to work towards in this task W the marking guidelines that your teacher wants you to address in this task. Explanation

Question types

Knowledge

W W

of dates, events, names, information recall of information

define, describe, identify, list, name, tell . . .

Understanding

W W W W W

of information of meaning ability to organise information ability to interpret and reorganise information ability to use knowledge to predict what happened next

discuss, interpret, predict, summarise . . .

Application

W W

of information, concepts, ideas in new situations use of knowledge and understanding to solve problems

apply, change, demonstrate, illustrate, modify, solve . . .

Analysis

W W W

identifying parts and patterns organisation of parts ability to detect alternative meanings

analyse, arrange, compare, explain, infer, select . . .

Synthesis

W W

using information to create generalisations and new ideas using information to draw conclusions

combine, create, design, formulate, integrate, predict, rewrite . . . ‘what if . . .’ questions

Evaluation

W W

judgement of the value of arguments, evidence, ideas, individuals use of argument to make choices

assess, compare, conclude, judge, rank . . .

Chapter 9 W The historical investigation

167

History essay questions rarely begin with the words ‘Write down everything you know about . . .’. A good question demands more than just ‘telling what happened’. Many teachers will expect you to come up with a question that will call for a response using the higher order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis and/or evaluation. Here are some examples: W

Discuss the role of X in . . .

W

Explain why . . .

W

Evaluate the significance of . . .

A question style that can work well for an investigation of an individual is one where you pose different views about the person, for example:

Che Guevara: terrorist or freedom fighter?

Developing a proposal Developing a proposal is like developing a plan of action. It gets you thinking seriously about what you want to do in your research task, helps you to start organising it and helps you make sure that what you are planning is ‘do-able’. The proposal pro forma on page 169 is a good beginning. The pro forma has space for you to identify sub-questions as well as the main question for your research. Sub-questions are the unstated questions that are hidden within your main question. They are questions that are usually quite obvious once you start thinking about your topic. Sub-questions do not extend your focus question. They are just the questions you need to answer in order to have fully answered your main question. You should also be clear about the time frame that your question requires you to consider. If it seems unmanageable, then you need to change your key question so that you can focus on a shorter period. Read the examples of a focus question and sub-questions below, then copy and complete the pro forma on page 169.

Focus question W

Evaluate the significance of Rasputin’s role in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty.

Sub-questions

An example of a focus question and the sub-questions that come from it

168

Retrospective

W

Who was Rasputin?

W

What is meant by the term ‘Romanov dynasty’?

W

What factors contributed to the downfall of the Romanov dynasty?

W

What role did Rasputin play in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty?

W

How does Rasputin’s role compare with the role of other factors that contributed to the downfall of the Romanov dynasty? (short term? long term? significant? insignificant? . . .)

Historical investigation — my proposal TOPIC AREA

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOCUS QUESTION

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SUB-QUESTIONS: • • • • •

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

USEFUL SOURCES IDENTIFIED SO FAR (provide full details) Books:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Journal articles:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Internet:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PLANNED MODE OF PRESENTATION

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SUBMISSION DATE

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

STAGES REQUIRED TO GET TO FINAL PRODUCT BY SUBMISSION DATE ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SIGNED:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DATE:

___________________________________________________________________________________

Proposal pro forma

Chapter 9 W The historical investigation

169

Investigation underway: reading and note-making It is tempting to do lots of research and note-making and then try to put it all together. It is quicker and more rewarding to begin putting your work together from the time you begin your research. There is always something you can write up, even in the early stages of your research, for example, a paragraph of basic (and essential) information, a sentence stating the historical issue you are addressing, a sentence outlining one of the arguments you might include or a sentence outlining some supporting evidence.

Selecting sources The first step here is to find a range of sources (books, CD-ROMs, documentaries, films, historical journals, websites) that are helpful for your topic. Take the time to choose these carefully. Make sure that they are relevant and not too difficult to read and understand. Begin with the sources that are easiest to understand so that you gain a good basic grasp of your topic, then move on to those that provide more depth of information and different viewpoints. Ask your librarian for more ideas about resources that might help you and use the footnotes and bibliographies in your source books to help locate more specific information. Footnotes and bibliographies often also give good references to journal articles. These are articles written by historians who are experts on a particular topic. In a short article, they can often provide a good overview of a topic and the issues and interpretations that are related to it.

Internet sources — handle with care Choose Internet sources carefully and think about their usefulness and reliability. It’s easy to get something onto the Internet. What you find there won’t have gone through the months of writing, checking for accuracy and editing that books have gone through. Some Internet material is written by students younger than you; some doesn’t name an author, indicate the writer’s qualifications or list references. Many people whose work is published on the Internet have a personal or political agenda that makes their writing emotional, biased and inaccurate. Some is written as a joke to catch people out. Good Internet sources often have ‘edu’ in the URL, indicating that they come from an educational institution. For these to be useful to you, you still need to know who has written the article and her/his qualifications. You still need to verify, from other sources, the accuracy of the information they provide.

Using sources — be critical The fact that a source says something does not make it true. You must judge that on the basis of comparison with other sources and consideration of the source itself. You have to use sources critically, by considering: W Who was the author and what was her/his purpose in writing? W What arguments is the author putting forward and does he/she provide enough evidence to support them? W Has the writer ignored evidence that contradicts her/his viewpoints?

170

Retrospective

W

Is there any evidence of bias in the information and ideas the author presents? W Do other sources support or contradict this author’s view and how does this affect the reliability and usefulness of the source? You don’t have to write answers to these questions. You do have to think about them and select the most useful and reliable sources for your research.

Reading for understanding This section deals with books. You can use a similar approach with other types of written sources and also adapt the approach for use with other types of sources.

‘Highlight’ does not mean ‘colour in the whole passage’! It means ‘make something stand out’ so you notice it. That is why you should focus on highlighting only the most significant words or phrases (not whole sentences).

Reading reference books is different from reading a novel so you need to approach it differently. With a novel, you usually only have to read something once to have understood it. With research materials, you need to read the relevant parts of the book a number of times. Begin by using the Contents and Index to locate the relevant chapter, section and pages of the book you’re using. You don’t have to read the whole book. When you have located the relevant pages, spend about five minutes skimming through key headings, pictures, tables, maps and introductory and concluding remarks to gain an understanding of the main points. Work out which of your sub-questions this can help you answer. Gaining knowledge of the overall ‘picture’ like this helps to make reading and note making easier because it gives you an idea of something meaningful to focus on — rather than just focusing on getting to the end. It helps to have photocopies of your research materials at hand because then you can write in sub-headings and highlight key points — something you cannot do in library books. What you need to do next is read to gain a more detailed understanding and, as you go, write in margin headings and highlight any very important words, phrases or sentences. By this time you should have a good understanding of what is the most useful information for your topic.

Making meaningful notes Go back through your reading material and this time make notes on what is useful to you. Some tips for good note making are: W Establish a structure for your project by listing each main heading that you will use, a dot point for each sub-heading and a dash for each point under your sub-heading (see the examples on page 172). W Use as few words for your notes as possible — there is no need to write sentences. W Use abbreviations (see the table on page 172). W Record only what is useful for your focus question. W Use your own words in your notes. This will force you to understand what you are recording and make it easier for you to use your own words in the final product. W At the beginning of your notes, write down the full bibliographical details of the source you are using (see the example on page 172). Use square brackets for the relevant page numbers, so that you have a record of exactly which page each part of your notes comes from. If you are good at note-making, you can probably use a range of different formats for your notes, such as mind maps, tables, diagrams and dot points. If you are less confident about how to make good notes, the system outlined on page 172 is a good way to start.

Chapter 9 W The historical investigation

171

An outline of how you can make and organise notes using the minimum number of words (the abbreviation c means ‘with’)

Sample notes Source: Smith, Maria. Rasputin (Shaw Publications, New York, 2001) [26] • Rasputin – Grigori Yefimovich – 10 Jan 1869–16 Dec 1916 (Russ. dates) – wanderer – not monk – seen as ‘starets’ (holy man, mystic, prophet) – also womaniser, heavy drinker [39] • Link to R. dyn – Tsarina’s desperate need: help for haemophilic son – 1905: sent for Ras. – Frequent success in healing boy (reasons unknown) – Tsarina relied on Ras., called him ‘holy man’, ‘our friend’ – Pers. infl. c Tsar too – Both saw him as relig. man who could heal c prayer

Meaning about, regarding against, versus and and others approximately

Abbreviation re vs &, + et al. y

Meaning government greater than increasing leading to less than

Abbreviation gov’t  k l 

because