Miscellaneous and Review

Ghandi and Indian Independence Mohandas Ghandi – worked as an attorney in South Africa and witnessed the mistreatment of Indians firsthand. Returned to India in He was active in the Indian National Congress and the movement for self-rule before WWI. Upon his return he organized mass protests against British laws. Soon the Indian people began to refer to him as Mahatma or “Great Soul”. He promoted the concepts of “civil disobedience”; refusal to obey laws considered to be unjust, and non- violence.

After protesting the massacre of unarmed Indians by British troops at Amritsar in 1919 Ghandi was put in prison for his role in the protests. Britain expanded the role of Indians in government in 1935 but it was still limited to a small percentage of the population. Most Indians wanted complete independence. Ghandi promoted a non-violent approach of protest through disobedient acts such as not paying taxes, sending the children to British supported schools or buying British made goods such as cotton cloth and salt. The British responded by increasing the tax on salt and prohibiting the Indians from producing their own. Ghandi responded by organizing the Salt March.

The Salt March

Thousands of Indians followed this act of civil disobedience. Ghandi and more than 60,000 members of the INC were arrested. A year later the British agreed to negotiate with Ghandi as the representative of the INC. After WWII the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed by Parliament. It divided British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan. The Act received the King’s approval on 18 July 1947, and Pakistan came into being on 15 August at the same time as Indian independence.

Nation Building in Latin America The success of the American Revolution and their independence from their colonial rulers caused other colonies and nations to seek independence or new forms of government. The French Revolution is one example but revolutions also took place in Latin America and South America. Jose’ de San Martin of Argentina and Simon Bolivar of Venezuela have been called the liberators of South America. Their defeats of the Spanish led to the independence of the South American countries of Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile while Brazil had become independent from Portugal.

Central America By 1839 the Central American states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua became independent nations. In 1823 President James Monroe created a new foreign policy for the U.S. which became known as the Monroe Doctrine. He guaranteed the independence of the new Latin Countries by warning the Europeans that if they interfered with these independent nations the U.S. would intervene. The U.S. also had the support of the British as they saw these new countries as potential trading partners and would use the British navy to intervene.

Revolt in Haiti The French colony of Saint Domingue was the first to gain independence from their European masters. Under the leadership of Francois-Domonique Toussaint- Louverture more than 100,000 slaves rebelled against their French masters and they seized control of the western part of the island in The new nation was called Haiti, the first independent state in Latin America. The U.S. was able to purchase Louisiana from the French because Napoleon needed cash to fight the rebellion.

Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory (828,000 square miles) by the United States from France in The U.S. paid fifty million francs ($11,250,000 USD) and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs ($3,750,000 USD) for a total of sixty-eight million francs ($15,000,000 USD). The Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.