Chapter 23

Independence and Development in the Global South

Comparing Freedom Struggles

Both India and Africa both had struggles with gaining independence from British rule. India had a political group called Indian National Congress that tried to work British rule in controlling India since they thought they could run India better since they were born there. But the British basically laughed and it didn’t change a thing. Then Gandhi showed up on the political spectrum and helped India gain independence by civil disobedience. To lots of people Gandhi possessed magical powers and produced miraculous events, “The Great Soul”. Gandhi didn’t want a social revolution but wanted the moral transformation of individuals. India gained independence but separated by religions. In South Africa it was a bigger struggle since they had an apartheid that tried to separate races in every way they can. They also had “pass laws” that tried to regulate where Africans could go. South Africa also had an important person that helped them through gaining independence, which was Nelson Mandela that followed Gandhi tactics with nonviolent civil disobedience. South Africa however, gained independence as a unity country.

Chapter 22/ Massaro Section 5 & 6

The Rise and fall of World Communism:

The famous Berlin Wall in Germany built in 1961 to prevent the residents of communist East Berlin from escaping to the West. This wall was torn down in November 9, 1989. Although, communism was openly spread to due the promise of liberation form inequality, oppression, exploitation and backwardness. Karl Marx and his ideologies inspired global Communism. During the Cold War decades the Warsaw Pact brought together the Soviet Union and Eastern European communist states in a military alliance. I guess in a way this was a smart move to make just in case one of the countries went into war with a non-communist country. The Russian and Chinese had different ways of obtaining full communism; The Bolsheviks party main audience was from workers in Russia major cities and the Chinese communist look at the country peasant villages for support. I think the reason the cold war was called the “cold” war was because usually wars are hot, bloody and violent. Whereas this war wasn’t violent but rather a more a stand still because the U.S. has nuclear weapons that can destroy a lot of things like the bombing of Hiroshima and the Soviet Union had also developed these weapons too. So it was more of waiting for one person to act first then the other retaliating. Thank fully though no one acted first. In the Catholic Social Teaching handout it talks about how the world can be shaped better if the rich were to think about the poor more and helped the poor to achieve better in obtaining social justice.