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May 18, 1497
The arrival of the Europeans
King Manuel of Portuguese, sent Vasco da Gama to find a sea route to India. By crossing the Indian Ocean and reaching the richest spice port in India. Portuguese merchants would sell for cheap with the new route. Soon the Europeans took over India. They controlled the sea routes between India, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The capital of India (Goa) became very important to European settlement. -
East Indian Company
The East Indian Company was founded in the 1600. The Dutch East India Company was incorporated two years later, even though Dutch merchants have been trading in the Indian Ocean way before 1595. The Dutch and the British where unwelcomed by the Portuguese. In the beginning, the British East India Company was very weak so they didn't get involved in wars for expansion. Soon after the 1700s, the company soon became strong enough to get large well-armed ships for trading in the Indian Ocean. -
Growth of the East India Company
In 1765, the company had became its own financial controller and had so much growth. The financial advantages helped make large armies of Indian soldiers, trained them, and commanded by the British. The company began to expand toward northern India. -
Great Britain takes over India
In the late 1800s, Great Britain and France soon struggled for dominance because of Indian rulers and military intervention. When the French soon defeated the Indian ruler (Tipoo Saltan) in 1799, it soon followed by a rapid expansion of British power. And it only got greater during the Indian subcontinent the 19th century. By the middle of the century the British had already gained direct control over almost all of India. -
Communism in China
The Communism Party of China (CPC) had been formed in 1921. The CPC was a role governing party of China made up of 8 other legal parties, which were part of the United Front. The parties of the CPC held no real power. It was founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. A few years later it was soon under the control of a important man named Mao Zedong in 1927. They're examples were the soviet model of development with heavy industry with surpluses extracted from peasants. -
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong aka Chairman Mao was born December 26, 1893. He was a Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People's Republic of China. He was Chairman of the CPC in 1949 until his death from a long illness in 1976. But while he was still alive, he wanted China to transform into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization. This method was called the Great Leap Forward. He also started the Cultural Revolution. -
Mohandas Gandhi
Mohandas Gandhi was a leader in the Indian independence movement of the British-ruled India. By using his method of nonviolence civil disobedience, he led India to independence. He was trained in law at the Inner Temple, London. He was an nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa. He led a hunger strike while imprisoned for six years. India got independence after Gandhi passed. He was killed by a Hindu Nationalist and took three bullets to the chest in 1947. -
Let The War Begin!
Japan and its allies (Germany and Italy) started a war with the United States by attacking Pearl Harbor. During the first two years of World War II, the U.S. had to maintained formal neutrality which was delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt. -
World War II continues
Soon the U.S. realized that they could handle the neutrality, so they took other matters. General Douglas MacArthur started to invade Japanese home islands. By time then the U.S. captured islands between bombings. During the war, the U.S. started not to trust any Japanese-Americans because they thought they were spies. So, President Roosevelt sent all Japanese-Americans to internment camps. Many of them did not know where they where going and once they got there, they had little freedom. -
Where it all begins and ends
During WWII, things started to go the way that the U.S. wanted it to. They started to get stronger and stronger as the war when on. Japanese navy and economy became weaker until it all began to fall. By then, Japan surrender. After defeating Japan, the U.S. and its Allies began the occupation and the rebuilding of Japan. With help of General Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. soon started the to recreate Japan's military, political, economic, and social reforms. -
Let the reconstrution begin
Led by General Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. was in full control of Japan. Even though the Allies had a role, MacArthur made the decisions at the end of the day. They all worked together to punish, reform, and to revive Japan's economy. Then after, a conclusion of a formal peace treaty and alliance. -
Independence Day
The Indian independence movement was a group of people that wanted to end the East India Company rule. The movement first started in Bengal. It soon formed the Indian National Congress. They soon adopted Mohandas Gandhi to help with their non-violent protest to get independence in the 1920s. the movement soon took a socialist orientation which led to the Indian Independence Act in 1947. Indi remained a dominion of the Crown until January 26, 1950, when the Constitution of India came into effect. -
Korean War
The Korean War all started when North Korea invaded South Korea. With help from the U.S. and the United Nations, they became South Korea's aid and China came to aid of North Korea. The U.S. had no choice but to get involved because South Korea was going against international communism. After all the fighting between the two back and forth, neither side had nothing to show for the war. -
Operation Blacklist: The end
The Occupation of Japan aka Operation Blacklist was ended by the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which had been signed on September 8, 1951. But, wasn't effective until April 28, 1952. Although the occupation ended in 1952, Japan didn't have its independence from the United States until 1972, which was when the Ryukyu Islands were restored. -
The Korean War ends
After all of the back and fourth between North and South Korea, neither side had nothing to show for having a war in the first place. Finally, the war ended in July 1953. Many soldiers lost their lives or have been wounded from the war (about 5 million lives). The Korean peninsula is still divided till this day. -
The Fall of Communism
After the Korean War, communism started to get stronger and stronger. At this rate, all countries in that region would fall to communism. So if North Korea fell for communism who is next? Vietnam was the next target to fall to communism. This was soon called the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory is when countries in a region fall to communism after one has already fell to communism. Soon when communism started to get to Vietnam, it caused problems. This was the beginning of the Vietnam War. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War known as the Second Indochina War was a war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. This was the second war fought by South Vietnam and North Vietnam. Created by Ho Chi Minh, Viet Minh is a group of people who were communist and wanted to get freedom from the French for Vietnam and get communism in Vietnam. -
The Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was a campaign to transform China from an agrarian economy into a socialist society in a short period of time. This event caused The Great Famine. This Leap Forward banned private farming and made one of the most deadly mass killings of human history. So the process of The Great Leap caused tens of millions of deaths. The negative effect of the Great Leap caused parties of the CPC to judge Mao. Soon party members rose to power. Which led Mao to the Cultural Revolution -
The Cultural Revolution
The movement of the Cultural Revolution took place in China from 1966-1976. The main reason for this movement was to prove what real communism was and for Mao to eliminate his rivals in the CPC. -
Vietnam War Ends
After all of the back and fourth between the U.S., South Vietnam, and North Vietnam it was soon beginning to end. The U.S. involvement in the war ended August 15, 1973. The capture of Saigon by North Vietnam on April 30 marked the end of the war in 1975. North and South Vietnam reunified the following year. -
Tiananmen Square
This event known as the June Fourth Incident led many students to protest for a "Democracy Movement" after the government made a martial law. The students wanted freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. Millions of people came to the Square to protest. This protest went on for 1 month, 2 weeks, and 6 days. Reasons why they protested were: Death of Hu Yaobang, Economic reforms, Inflation, and Nepotism. Their methods were hunger strikes, sit-ins, and occupation of public square.
