828 _ CHAPTER 31 Striving for Independence: India, Africa, and Latin America, 1900-1949

armed members of one faith hunted down people of the other faith. Leaving most of their pos
sessions behind, Hindus fled from predominantly Muslim areas, and Muslims fled from Hindu
areas. Trainloads of desperate refugees of one
faith were attacked and massacred by mem
bers of the other or were left stranded in the
middle of deserts. Within a few months some
12 million people had abandoned their ances
tral homes and a half-million lay dead. In Jan
uary 1948 Gandhi died too, gunned down by
an angry Hindu refugee.
After the sectarian massacres and flights
of refugees, Muslims were a minority in all
but one state ofIndia. That state was Kashmir,
a strategically important region in the foot
hills of the Himalayas. India annexed Kash
mir because the local maharajah was Hindu
and because the state held the headwaters
of the rivers that irrigated millions of acres
of farmland. Most inhabitants would have
joined Pakistan if they had been allowed to
vote on the matter. The annexation of Kash
mir turned India and Pakistan into bitter ene
mies that have fought several wars in the past
half-century.
SECTION REVIEW
Under British rule, India's population grew but remained divided by
religion and caste.
The British introduced certain modern technologies but discouraged
Indian industry that might compete with British industry.
British racial policies, brutality, and arrogance awakened a sense of
nationhood among educated Indians.
The Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim league
demanded independence.
Mahatma Gandhi led the independence movement using nonviolent
tactics and turned an upper-class rebellion into one involving all of
India.
Nehru, Gandhi's successor, wanted to modernize India, and the
Indian National Congress resisted British rule during World War II.
When the British left India in 1947, it split into two nations amidst
widespread riots and massacres between Hindus and Muslims.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, 1900-1945
Of all the continents, Africa was the last to come under European rule (see Chapter 28). The first
half of the twentieth century, the time when nationalist movements threatened European rule in
Asia (see Diversity and Dominance: A Vietnamese Nationalist Denounces French Colonialism),
was Africa's period of classic colonialism. After World War I Britain, France, Belgium, and South
Africa divided Germany's African colonies among themselves. Then in the 1930s Italy invaded
Ethiopia. The colonial empires reached their peak shortly before World War II.
Colonial Africa: Economic and Social Changes
Outside of Algeria, Kenya, and South Africa, few Europeans lived in Africa. In 1930 Nigeria, with
a population of 20 million, was ruled by 386 British officials and by 8,000 policemen and mili
tary, of whom 150 were European. Yet even such a small presence stimulated deep social and
economic changes.
The colonial powers had built railroads from coastal cities to mines and plantations in the
interior to transport raw materials to the industrial world, but few Africans benefited from these
changes. Colonial governments took lands from Africans and sold or leased them to European
companies or to white settlers. Large European companies dominated wholesale commerce,
while Indians, Greeks, and Syrians handled much of the retail trade.
Where land was divided into small farms, some Africans benefited from the boom. Farmers
in the Gold Coast (now Ghana [GAH-nuhJ) profited from the high price of cocoa, as did palm-oil
producers in Nigeria and coffee growers in East Africa. In most of Africa women played a major
role in the retail trades, selling cloth, food. pots and pans, and other items in the markets. Many
maintained their economic independence and kept their household finances separate from
those of their husbands. following a custom that predated the colonial period.
For many Africans. however, economic development meant working in European-owned
mines and plantations, often under compulsion. Colonial governments were eager to develop the
resources of the territories under their control but would not pay wages high enough to attract
Sub-Saharan Africa, 1900-1945 829
Palm oil
one of the most impor
crops of West Africa.
two farm women
workers. Instead, they used their police powers to force Africans to work under harsh conditions
for little or no pay. In the 1920s, when the government of French Equatorial Africa decided to
build a railroad from Brazzaville to the Atlantic coast, a distance of312 miles (502 kilometers), it
drafted 127,000 men to carve a roadbed across mountains and through rain forests. For lack of
food, clothing, and medical care, 20,000 of them died, an average of 64 deaths per mile of track.
Europeans prided themselves on bringing modern health care to Africa; yet before the 1930s
other aspects of colonialism actually worsened public health. Migrants and soldiers spread
syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, and malaria_ Sleeping sickness and smallpox epidemics raged
throughout Central Africa. In recruiting men to work, colonial governments also depleted rural
areas of farmers needed to plant and harvest crops. Forced requisitions of food to feed the work
ers left the remaining populations undernourished and vulnerable to diseases. Not until the
1930s did colonial governments realize the negative consequences of their labor policies and
begin to invest in agricultural development and health care for Africans.
In 1900 Ibadan (ee-BAH-dahn) in Nigeria was the only city in sub-Saharan Africa with
more than 100,000 inhabitants; fifty years later, dozens of cities had reached that size. Africans
migrated to cities because they offered hope of jobs and excitement and, for a few, the chance to
become wealthy.
However, migrations damaged the family life of those involved, for almost all the migrants
were men leaving women in the countryside to farm and raise children. Reflecting the colonial
ists' attitudes, cities built during the colonial period had racially segregated housing, clubs, res
taurants, hospitals, and other institutions. Patterns of racial discrimination were most rigid in
the white-settler colonies of eastern and southern Africa.
Religious and Political Changes
Traditional religious belief could not explain the dislocations that foreign rule, migrations, and
sudden economic changes brought to the lives ofAfricans. Many therefore turned to Christian
ity or Islam.
Christianity was introduced into Africa by Western missionaries, except in Ethiopia, where
it was indigenous. It was most successful in West and South Africa, where the European influ
ence was strongest. A major attraction of the Christian denominations was their mission schools,
which taught both craft skills and basic literacy, providing access to employment as minor
functionaries, teachers, and shopkeepers. These schools educated a new elite, many of whom
learned not only skills and literacy but Western political ideas as well. Many Africans accepted
Christianity enthusiastically, reading the suffering of their own peoples into the biblical stories
of Moses and the parables of Jesus. The churches trained some of the brighter pupils to become
catechists, teachers, and clergymen. Independent Christian churches associated Christian
beliefs with radical ideas of racial equality and participation in politics.
Islam spread inland from the East African coast and southward from the Sahel (SAH-hel)
through the influence and example of Arab and African merchants. Islam also emphasized
830
A Quranic School In
Muslim countries. religious
education is centered on
learning to read, write,
and recite the Quran, the
sacred book of the Islamic
religion. in the original
Arabic. This picture shows
boys in a Libyan madrasa
(Quranic school) studying
writing and religion.
832 _ CHAPTER 31
Blaise Diagne Senegalese
political leader. He was the
first African elected to the
French National Assem
bly. During World War I,
in exchange for promises
to give French citizenship
to Senegalese, he helped
recruit Africans to serve
in the French army. After
the war, he led a movement
to abolish forced labor in
Africa.
lIII"'rli
SECTION REVIEW
Striving for Independence: India, Africa, and Latin America, 1900-1949
literacy-in Arabic rather than in a European language-and was less disruptive of traditional
African customs such as polygamy.
In Dakar in Senegal and Cape Town in South Africa, small numbers of Africans could obtain
secondary education. Even smaller numbers went on to college in Europe or America. Though
few in number, they became the leaders of political movements. The contrast between the lib
eral ideas imparted by Western education and the realities of racial discrimination under colo
nial rule contributed to the rise of nationalism among educated Africans. In Senegal Blaise
Diagne (dee-AH N -yu h) agitated for African participation in politics and fair treatment in the
French army during World War I, and in the 1920s J. E. Casely Hayford began organizing a move
ment for greater autonomy in British West Africa. These nationalist movements were inspired
by the ideas of Pan-Africanists from America such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, who
advocated the unity of African peoples around the world, as well as by European ideas of liberty
and nationhood. To defend the interests of Africans, Western-educated lawyers and journalists
in South Africa founded the African National Congress in 1912. Before World War II, however,
these nationalist movements were small and had little influence.
The Second World War had a profound effect on the peoples of Africa, even those far
removed from the theaters of war. The war brought hardships, such as increased forced labor,
inflation, and requisitions of raw materials. Yet it also brought hope. During the campaign to
oust the Italians from Ethiopia, Emperor Haile
Selassie (H I-lee seh-lASS-ee) (r. 1930-1974) led
his own troops into Addis Ababa, his capital, and
Colonial rule developed Africa's economies atthe expense of
its peoples' livelihoods and health.
reclaimed his title. A million Africans served as
soldiers and carriers in Burma, North Africa, and
Europe, where many became aware of Africa's role
in helping the Allied war effort. They listened to
Allied propaganda in favor of European liberation
movements and against Nazi racism and returned
Many Africans turned to Christianity or Islam; some, especially
those who participated in World War II, began to demand
independence.
to their countries with new and radical ideas.
MEXICO, ARGENTINA, AND BRAZIL, 1900-1949
African National Congress
An organization dedicated
to obtaining equal voting
and civil rights for black
inhabitants of South Africa.
Founded in 1912 as the South
African Native National Con
gress, it changed its name in
1923. Though it was banned
and its leaders were jailed
for many years, it eventually
helped bring majority rule to
South Africa.
Haile Selassie Emperor of
Ethiopia (r. 1930-1974) and
symbol of African indepen
dence. He fought the Italian
invasion of his country in
1935 and regained his throne
during World War II, when
British forces expelled the
Italians. He ruled Ethiopia as
a traditional autocracy until
he was overthrown in 1974.
Latin America achieved independence from Spain and Portugal in the nineteenth century
but did not industrialize. Most Latin American republics, suffering from ideological divisions,
unstable governments, and violent upheavals, traded their commodities for foreign manufac
tured goods and investments and became economically dependent on the United States and
Great Britain. Their societies remained deeply split between wealthy landowners and desper
ately poor peasants.
Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina contained well over half of Latin America's land, population,
and wealth, and their relations with other countries and their economies were quite similar.
Mexico, however, underwent a traumatic social revolution, while Argentina and Brazil evolved
more peaceably.
Background to Revolution: Mexico in 1910
At the beginning of the twentieth century Mexican society was divided into rich and poor and
into persons of Spanish, Indian, and mixed ancestry. A few very wealthy families of Spanish ori
gin, less than 1 percent of the population, owned 85 percent of Mexico's land, mostly in huge
haciendas (estates). A handful of American and British companies controlled most of Mexico's
railroads, silver mines, plantations, and other productive enterprises. At the other end of the
social scale were Indians, many of whom did not speak Spanish. Mestizos (mess-TEE.so), peo
ple of mixed Indian and European ancestry, were only slightly better off; most of them were
peasants who worked on the haciendas or farmed small communal plots near their ancestral
villages.
After independence in 1821 wealthy Mexican families and American companies used brib
ery and force to acquire millions of acres of good agricultural land from villages in southern
Decolonization and Nation Building 857
Despite recurrent predictions that multilingual India might break up into a number of lin
guistically homogeneous states, most Indians recognized that unity benefited everyone; and the
country pursued a generally democratic and socialist line of development. Pakistan, in contrast,
did break up. In 1971 the Bengali-speaking eastern section seceded to become the independent
country of Bangladesh. During the fighting Indian military forces again struck against Pakistan.
Despite their shared political heritage, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have found cooperation
difficult and have pursued markedly different economic, political, religious, and social paths.
During the war the Japanese supported anti-British Indian nationalists as a way to weaken
their enemy; they also encouraged the aspirations of nationalists in the countries they occupied
in Southeast Asia. Many Asian nationalists sawJapanese victories over British, French, and Dutch
colonial armies as a demonstration of the political and military capacities of Asian peoples. In the
Dutch East Indies, Achmad Sukarno (1901-1970) cooperated with the Japanese in the hope that
the Dutch, who had dominated the region economically since the seventeenth century, could be
expelled. The Dutch finally negotiated withdrawal in 1949, and Sukarno became the dictator of
the resource-rich but underdeveloped nation of Indonesia. He ruled until 1965, when a military
coup ousted him and brutally eliminated the nation's once powerful communist party.
Britain granted independence to Burma (now Myanmar [my-ahn-MAR)) in 1948 and estab
lished the Malay Federation the same year. Singapore, once a member of the federation, became
an independent city-state in 1965. In 1946 the United States kept its promise of postwar indepen
dence for the Philippine Islands but retained close economic ties and leases on military bases.
The Struggle for Independence in Africa
Between 1952 and 1956 France granted independence to Tunisia and Morocco, but it sought to
retain Algeria. France had controlled this colony for nearly 150 years and had encouraged settle
ment; in 1950, 10 percent of the Algerian population was of French or other European origin.
France also granted political rights to the settler population and asserted the fiction of Algeria's
political and economic integration in the French nation. In reality few Algerians benefited from
this arrangement, and most resented their continued colonial status.
The Vietnamese military victory over France in 1954 helped provoke a nationalist uprising
in Algeria, during which both sides acted brutally. The Algerian revolutionary organization,
the Front de Liberation National (FLN), was supported by Egypt and other Arab countries who
sought the emancipation of all Arab peoples. French colonists considered the country theirs and
fought to the bitter end. When Algeria finally won independence in 1962, a flood of angry colo
nists returned to France. Since few Arabs had received technical training, this departure under
mined the economy. Despite harsh feelings left by the war, Algeria retained close and seemingly
indissoluble economic ties to France, and Algerians in large numbers emigrated to France to
take low-level jobs.
Independence was achieved in most of sub-Saharan Africa through negotiation, not revolu
tion. In colonies with significant white settler minorities, however, the path to independence
followed the violent experience of Algeria. African nationalists were forced to overcome many
obstacles, but they were also able to take advantage of many consequential changes put in place
during colonial rule. In the 1950s and 19608 world economic expansion and growing support
for liberation overcame African worries about potential economic and political problems that
might follow independence. Moreover, improvements in medical care and public health had led
to rapid population growth in Africa, and the continent's young population embraced the idea
of independence.
Western nationalist and egalitarian ideals also helped fuel resistance to colonialism. Most
of the leaders of African independence movements were among the most westernized members
of these societies. African veterans of Allied armies during World War II had exposure to Allied
propaganda that emphasized ideas of popular sovereignty and self-determination. In addition,
manyleaders were recent graduates of educational institutions created by colonial governments,
and a minority had obtained advanced education in Europe and the United States.
African nationalists were able to take advantage of other legacies of colonial rule as well.
Schools, labor associations, and the colonial bureaucracy itself proved to be fertile national
ist recruiting centers. Languages introduced by colonial governments were useful in building
multiethnic coalitions, while networks of roads and railroads built to promote colonial exports
forged new national identities and a new political consciousness.
"
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Italy Other
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1l':1J;J?flf) Decolonization,1947-1990 Independence was achieved a decade or so earlier in South and Southeast Asia than
Ie: Interactive Map
in Africa.
I
Decolonization and Nation Building 859
Jomo Kenyatta Kenya's newly elected premier,
Jomo Kenyatta, cheered by crowds in Nairobi in
1963. Kenyatta (waving ceremonial "wisk") had
led the struggle to end British colonial rule in
Kenya.
The young politicians who led the national
ist movements devoted their lives to ridding their
homelands of foreign occupation. An example
is Kwame Nkrumah (KWAH-mee nn-KROO
mUh) (1909-1972), who in 1957 became prime
minister of Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast), the
first British colony in West Africa to achieve inde
pendence. After graduating from a Catholic mis
sion school and a government teacher-training
college, Nkrumah spent a decade studying phi
losophy and theology in the United States, where
he absorbed ideas about black pride and inde
pendence propounded by W. E. B. Du Bois and
Marcus Garvey.
During a brief stay in Britain, Nkrumah
:.0
8 joined Kenyan nationalist Iomo Kenyatta, a
Ph.D. in anthropology, to found an organization
devoted to African freedom. In 1947 Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast to work for indepen
dence. The time was right. There was no longer strong public support in Britain for colonialism,
and Britain's political leadership was not enthusiastic about investing resources to hold restive
colonies. When Nkrumah's partywon a decisive election victory in 1951, the British Gold Coast
governor appointed him prime minister. Full independence came in 1957. Although Nkrumah
remained an effective international spokesman for colonized peoples, he was overthrown in
1966 by a group of army officers.
Britain soon granted independence to its other West African colonies, including large
and populous Nigeria in 1960. In some British colonies in eastern and southern Africa, how
ever, white settler opposition resisted independence. In Kenya a small but influential group of
wealthy coffee planters claimed that a protest movement among the Kikuyu (kih-KOO-you)
people was proof that Africans were not ready for self-government. The settlers called the move
ment "Mau Mau," a made-up name meant to evoke primitive savagery. When violence between
settlers and anticolonial fighters escalated after 1952, British troops hunted down movement
leaders and resettled the Kikuyu in fortified villages. They also declared a state of emergency,
banned all African political protest, and imprisoned Kenyatta and other nationalists. Released
in 1961, Kenyatta negotiated with the British to write a constitution for an independent Kenya,
and in 1964 he was elected the first president. Kenyatta proved to be an effective, though auto
cratic, ruler, and Kenya benefited from greater stability and prosperity than Ghana and many
other former colonies.
African leaders in the sub-Saharan French colonies were more reluctant than their coun
terparts in British colonies to call for full independence. Promises made in 1944 by the Free
French movement of General Charles de Gaulle at a conference in Brazzaville, in French Equa
torial Africa, seemed to offer dramatic changes without independence. Dependent on the troops
and supplies of French African colonies, de Gaulle had promised Africans a more democratic
government, broader suffrage, and greater access to employment in the colonial government.
He had also promised better education and health services and an end to many abuses in the
colonial system. He had not promised independence, but the politics of postwar colonial self
government led in that direction.
Most Africans elected to office follOWing the reforms were trained civil servants. Because of
the French policy of job rotation, they had typically served in a number of different colonies and
860 _ CHAPTER 32 The Cold War and Decolonization, 1945-1975
taJ PRIMARY SOURCE:
~ t_
It ~ Comments on Algeria,
April 11, 1961 Read excerpts
of a press conference held by
Charles de Gaulle, in which he
declares France's willingness to
accept Algerian independence.
PRIMARY SOURCE:
The Rivonia Trial
Speech to the Court Read
how Nelson Mandela defended
himself against charges of trea
son before an all-white South
African court in 1964.
thus had a broad regional outlook. They realized that some colonies-such as Ivory Coast, with
coffee and cacao exports, fishing, and hardwood forests-had good economic prospects, while
others, such as landlocked, desert Niger, did not. Furthermore, they recognized the importance
of French public investment in the region-a billion dollars between 1947 and 1956-and their
own dependence on civil service salaries. As a result, they generally looked to achieve greater
self-government incrementally.
When Charles de Gaulle returned to power in France in 1958, at the height of the Algerian
\var, he warned that a rush to independence would have costs, saying: "One cannot conceive of
both an independent territory and a France which continues to aid it." Ultimately, however, Afri
can patriotism prevailed in all of France's West African and Equatorial African colonies. Guinea,
under the dynamicleadership ofSekou Toure (SAY.koo too-RAY), gained full independence in
1958 and the others in 1960.
Independence in the Belgian Congo was chaotic and violent. Contending political and ethnic
groups found external allies; some were supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, while others
were supported by the West or by business groups tied to the rich mines. Civil war, the introduc
tion of foreign mercenaries, and the rhetoric of Cold War confrontation roiled the waters and led
to a heavy loss of life and great property destruction. In 1965 Mobuto Sese Seko seized power in a
military coup that included the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister. Mob
uto controlled one of the region's most corrupt governments until driven from power in 1997.
The opposition of European settlers delayed decolonization in southern Africa. While the set
tler minority tried to defend white supremacy, African-led liberation movements were committed
to the creation of nonracial societies and majority rule. In the 19608 African guerrilla movements
successfully fought to end Portuguese rule in Angola and Mozambique. Their efforts led to the
overthrow ofthe antidemocratic government of Portugal in 1974 and independence the following
year. After a ten-year fight, European settlers in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia accepted
African majority rule in 1980. The new government changed the country's name to Zimbabwe,
the name of a great stone city built by Africans long before the arrival of European settlers.
South Africa and neighboring Namibia remained in the hands of European minorities. The
large white settler population of South Africa achieved effective independence in 1961 but kept
the black and mixed-race majority in colonial-era subjection, separating the races in a system
they called apartheid (a- PART-hite). Descendents of Dutch and English settlers made up 13 per
cent of the population but controlled the productive land, the industrial, mining, and commer
cial enterprises, and the government. Meanwhile, discrimination and segregation in housing,
education, and employment confined the lives of people of mixed parentage (10 percent of the
population) and South Asians (less than 3 percent).
Indigenous Africans, 74 percent of the population, were subjected to even stricter limita
tions on housing, freedom of movement, and access to jobs and public facilities. The government
created fictional African "homelands" as a way of denying the African majority citizenship and
political rights. Not unlike Amerindian reservations, these "homelands" were located in poor
regions far from the more dynamic and prosperous urban and industrial areas. Overcrowded
and lacking investment, they were impoverished and lacking in services and opportunities.
The African National Congress (ANC), formed in 1912, led opposition to apartheid (see
Diversity and Dominance: Race and the Struggle for Justice in SouthAfrica). After police fired on
demonstrators in the African town of Sharpeville in 1960 and banned all peaceful political pro
test by Africans, a lawyer named Nelson Mandela (b. 1918) organized guerrilla resistance by the
ANC. The government sentenced Mandela to life in prison in 1964 and persecuted the ANC, but
it was unable to defeat the movement. Facing growing opposition internationally, South Africa
freed Mandela from prison in 1990 and began the transition to majority rule (see Chapter 34).
The Quest for Econornic Freedorn in Latin America
Although Latin America had achieved independence from colonial rule more than a hundred
years earlier, European and American economic domination of the region created a semicolo
nial order (see Chapters 28 and 31). Foreigners controlled Chile's copper, Cuba's sugar, Colom
bia's coffee, and Guatemala's bananas, leading by the 1930s to growing support for economic
nationalism. During the 19308 and 1940s populist political leaders experimentedwith programs
that would constrain foreign investors or, alternatively, promote local efforts to industrialize
(see discussion of Getulio Vargas and Juan Peron in Chapter 31).
884 _ CHAPTER 33 The End of the Cold War and the Challenge of Economic Development and Immigration
States, Britain, and France acted on behalf of NATO by launching an aerial war that forced the
withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo.
Progress and Conflict in Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced political instability, military coups, civil wars, and con
flicts over resources since independence. It has also remained among the poorest regions in the
world. Southern Africa, however, has seen democratic progress and a steady decline in armed
conflicts since 1991. A key change came in South Africa in 1994, when long-time political pris
oner Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress (ANe) won the first national elections
in which the African majority could participate equally. Also hopeful has been the return to
democracy of Nigeria, Africa's most populous state, after decades of military rulers. In 1999,
after a succession of military governments, Nigerians elected President Olusegun Obasanjo
(oh-LOO-she-gun oh-BAH-san-jo) (a former coup leader), and a 2003 vote renewed his term,
despite serious voting irregularities. Similarly, in 2002 Kenyans voted out the party that had held
power for thirty-nine years.
Africa was also a scene of ethnic cleansing. In 1994 the political leaders of the Central
African nation of Rwanda incited Hutu people to massacre their Tutsi neighbors. Since the
major powers had promised to intervene in genocides, they avoided using the word genocide
to describe the slaughter. Without foreign intervention, the carnage claimed 750,000 lives with
millions more refugees. Finally, the United States and other powers intervened and the United
Nations set up a tribunal to try those responsible for the genocide. In 1998 violence spread from
Rwanda to neighboring Congo, where growing opposition and ill health had forced President
Joseph Mobutu from office after over three decades of dictatorial misrule. Various peacemaking
attempts failed to restore order and by mid-2003 more than 3 million Congolese had died from
disease, malnutrition, and injuries related to the fighting.
The Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War was the first significant conflict to occur after the breakup of the Soviet
Union and the end of the Cold War. Iraq's ruler, Saddam Husain, had borrowed a great deal of
money from neighboring Kuwait and failed to get Kuwait's royal family to reduce this debt. He
was also eager to control Kuwait's oil fields. Husain believed that the smaller and militarily
weaker nation could be quickly defeated, and he
SECTION REVIEW suspected that the United States would not react.
The invasion occurred in August 1990.
The Cold War ended when growing unrest and criticism led to
The United States decided to react. Saudi Ara
the collapse of the Soviet Union and allied socialist nations.
bia, an important ally of the United States and a
Mikhail Gorbachev's reform policies accelerated this process.
major oil producer, also supported intervention.
With his intention to use force endorsed by the
The rise of ethnic nationalism led to war and genocide in
United Nations and with many Islamic nations
Yugoslavia.
supporting military action, President George H. W.
South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya escaped from oppressive Bush ordered an attack in early 1991. Iraq's military
conditions, but hundreds of thousands losttheir lives in ethnic defeat was comprehensive, but Husain remained
violence in Rwanda and Congo. in power, crushing an uprising just months follow
ing his defeat. The United States imposed various
After Saddam Husain invaded Kuwait, the United States and its
conditions on Iraq that kept tensions high, helping
allies defeated Iraq in the first Gulf War of 1990.
create the conditions for a new war in 2003.
THE CHALLENGE OF POPULATION GROWTH
For most of human history governments viewed population growth as beneficial, a source of
national wealth and power. Since the late eighteenth century, however, growing numbers of
experts and politicians have viewed population increases with alarm, fearing that food sup
plies could not keep up with population growth. Late in the nineteenth century some social
critics expressed concern that growing populations would lead to class and ethnic struggle. By