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Jeffrey Epstein

2026-03-06T01:09:15Z

70.115.131.7: Added a lot more

{{Infobox person|name=Jeffrey Epstein|birth_place=New York City, New York, [[United States of America|United States]]|birth_date=January 20, 1953|death_date=August 10, 2019|death_cause=Strangulation|nationality=Statesian|image=Epstein.png|death_place=New York City, New York, United States}}

'''Jeffrey Edward Epstein''' (January 20, 1953 – August 10, 2019) was a Statesian financier, capitalist speculator, serial rapist, convicted sex offender, pedophile, and central figure in one of the most extensive elite sexual abuse scandals in modern history. Through a combination of financial maneuvering, social networking among the ultra-wealthy, and opaque investment activities, Epstein accumulated immense wealth and cultivated relationships with powerful figures across politics, business, academia, and aristocratic circles. His career and downfall have been widely cited as an example of how wealth, political influence, and class power can shield members of the ruling class from accountability for long periods of time.He had connections to former [[United States of America|U.S.]] presidents [[Bill Clinton]] and [[Donald Trump]],<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|author=[[Alan MacLeod]]|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Corporate Media Silence Deafening as Former Clinton Aide Confirms Ties to Jeffrey Epstein|date=2020-12-07|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-silence-deafening-former-clinton-aide-confirms-ties-jeffrey-epstein/273456/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921230825/https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-silence-deafening-former-clinton-aide-confirms-ties-jeffrey-epstein/273456/|archive-date=2022-09-21|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref> fellow billionaire [[Elon Musk]],<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=Whitney Webb|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=How the CIA, Mossad, and "the Epstein Network" Are Exploiting Mass Shootings to Create an Orwellian Nightmare|date=2019-09-06|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/cia-israel-mossad-jeffrey-epstein-orwellian-nightmare/261692/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002185148/https://www.mintpressnews.com/cia-israel-mossad-jeffrey-epstein-orwellian-nightmare/261692/|archive-date=2022-10-02|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref> and the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|British]] royal family.<ref name=":2">{{Web citation|author=Whitney Webb|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=These Scrubbed Reports Reveal New Secrets|date=2019-10-14|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/scrubbed-reports-reveal-new-secrets-of-the-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-relationship/262330/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806223123/https://www.mintpressnews.com/scrubbed-reports-reveal-new-secrets-of-the-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-relationship/262330/|archive-date=2022-08-06|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref> He was supported by Zionist Lawyer, Alan Derchowitz.

== Crimes ==
Epstein's crimes date back to the 1990s at least and involved hundreds of victims. He was in prison from 2007 to 2009 but was allowed to leave his cell for 12 hours a day.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Candice Yanez|newspaper=[[Liberation News]]|title=Pedophile Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes covered up to protect the ultra-rich|date=2019-07-15|url=https://www.liberationnews.org/pedophile-billionaire-jeffrey-epsteins-crimes-covered-up-to-protect-the-ultra-rich/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107232109/https://www.liberationnews.org/pedophile-billionaire-jeffrey-epsteins-crimes-covered-up-to-protect-the-ultra-rich/|archive-date=2020-11-07|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref>

== Arrest and death ==
The New York City Police Department arrested Epstein on July 6, 2019 at an airport in [[New Jersey]] for sex trafficking minors.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Whitney Webb|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Hidden in Plain Sight: The Shocking Origins of the Jeffrey Epstein Case|date=2019-07-18|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/shocking-origins-jeffrey-epstein-blackmail-roy-cohn/260621/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027235149/https://www.mintpressnews.com/shocking-origins-jeffrey-epstein-blackmail-roy-cohn/260621/|archive-date=2022-10-27|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref> He was murdered in prison later that year.<ref name=":0" /> Epstein's prison footage was released to the public in July 2025, but the footage was doctored.<ref>{{Web citation|author=DHRUV MEHROTRA|newspaper=WIRED|title=Metadata Shows the FBI’s ‘Raw’ Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Was Likely Modified|url=https://www.wired.com/story/metadata-shows-the-dojs-raw-jeffrey-epstein-prison-video-was-likely-modified/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250716132342/https://www.wired.com/story/metadata-shows-the-dojs-raw-jeffrey-epstein-prison-video-was-likely-modified/|archive-date=2025-07-16}}</ref>

== Connections ==

* [[Bill Clinton]]<ref>{{Web citation|author=Joe Sommerlad|newspaper=The Independent|title=Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein’s friendship timeline: From philanthropy to ‘Lolita Express’ trips|date=2025-08-06|url=https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/bill-clinton-jeffrey-epstein-timeline-b2802828.html|archive-date=2025-08-22|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Web citation|author=Gabriel Sherman|newspaper=Vanity Fair|title=Confessions of a Clintonworld Exile|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/confessions-of-a-clintonworld-exile|archive-url=https://archive.is/57bcj|archive-date=2020-12-02|retrieved=2025-08-22|quote=Band told me he had been trying to push Epstein out of Clinton’s orbit ever since their much-discussed 2002 trip to Africa aboard Epstein’s private 727, dubbed the “Lolita Express.” Band recalled that Epstein had made a bunch of ridiculous claims on the trip, like boasting that he invented the derivatives market. Band said he had no idea about Epstein’s sex crimes back then but got enough bad vibes that he advised Clinton to end the relationship. But Clinton continued to socialize with Epstein and take his money. In 2006 Epstein donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton made more than two dozen trips on Epstein’s jet around this time, Epstein’s flight logs show. In January 2003, according to Band, Clinton visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St. James}}</ref>
* [[Donald Trump]]<ref>{{Web citation|author=James Hill|newspaper=ABC News|title=The times Trump's name appeared in the Epstein files the DOJ has already released|date=2025-07-17|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/times-trumps-appeared-epstein-files-doj-released/story?id=123848078|archive-url=https://megalodon.jp/2025-0823-0005-52/https://abcnews.go.com:443/US/times-trumps-appeared-epstein-files-doj-released/story?id=123848078|archive-date=2025-08-22|retrieved=2025-08-22|quote=In the files, Trump was also listed as a passenger on Epstein’s plane eight times between 1993 and 1997.}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Hugh Dougherty|newspaper=Daily Beast|title=Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’|date=2024-11-02|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/listen-to-the-jeffrey-epstein-tapes-i-was-donald-trumps-closest-friend/|archive-url=https://archive.is/y2ubq|archive-date=2024-11-02|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref>
* Prince Andrew<ref>{{Web citation|author=Sean Coughlan|newspaper=BBC|title=Andrew emails show contact with Epstein lasted beyond 2010|date=2025-01-31|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8qz22dqdzo|archive-url=https://archive.is/rqADE|archive-date=2025-01-31|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
* Elon Musk<ref>{{Web citation|author=Andrew Stanton|newspaper=Newsweek|title=Elon Musk's Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Explained|date=2025-06-06|url=https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-jeffrey-epstein-family-ghislaine-maxwell-trump-2082228|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250710193845/http://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-jeffrey-epstein-family-ghislaine-maxwell-trump-2082228|archive-date=2025-07-10|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
* Ehud Barak<ref>{{Web citation|author=JTA|newspaper=Times of Israel|title=Ehud Barak met with Jeffrey Epstein dozens of times, flew on private plane — report|date=2023-05-04|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/ehud-barak-met-with-jeffrey-epstein-dozens-of-times-flew-on-private-plane-report/|archive-url=https://archive.is/ulOtb|archive-date=2023-11-07|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref>
* FBI<ref>{{Web citation|author=Matthew Acton|newspaper=Radar|title=EXCLUSIVE: Leaked FBI Document Reveals Jeffrey Epstein's Secret History as an FBI Informant|date=2025-08-05|url=https://radaronline.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-fbi-source-leaked-document/|archive-url=https://archive.is/G4zv2|archive-date=2025-08-05|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref>
* Israeli military intelligence/Mossad<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Middle East Monitor|title=Jeffrey Epstein was blackmailing politicians for Israel’s Mossad, new book claims|date=2020-01-06|url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200106-jeffrey-epstein-was-blackmailing-politicians-for-israels-mossad-new-book-claims/|archive-url=https://archive.is/f1gj2|archive-date=2020-01-08|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
* Noam Chomsky
* Steve Bannon
* MBS

== See also ==

* [[MeToo movement|#MeToo]]
*[[TrueAnon]]

== References ==
[[Category:Capitalists]]
[[Category:Billionaires]]
<references />
[[Category:Pedophiles]]
[[Category:People on Epstein flight logs]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Jeffrey}}
[[Category:Assassinations ruled as suicides]]

Ali Khamenei

2026-03-06T00:50:16Z

70.115.131.7: Copy pasted this from the Putin Page

{{Infobox politician|name=Ali Khamenei|native_name=علی خامنه‌ای|birth_date=19 April 1939|birth_place=Mashhad, [[Iran]]|death_date=28 February 2026 (aged 86)|death_place=Tehran, Iran|death_cause=Assassination by airstrike|political_orientation=[[Anti-imperialism]]|image=Ali Khamenei.jpg}}

'''Ali Hosseini Khamenei''' (19 April 1939 – 28 February 2026) was an [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iranian]] Ayatollah and politician who served as the second supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination in 2026. He previously served as the [[president of Iran]] from 1981 to 1989. A prominent [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]] figure, his murder by the [[State of Israel|Zionist Entity]] contributed to escalating the [[2026 Iran Conflict]].

== Assassination ==
Following the unprovoked [[Imperialism|imperialist]] attack on Iran by the [[United States of America|U.S.]] and Israel, Khamenei's Tehran compound was hit by multiple precision-guided munitions on February 28, 2026. The assassination was confirmed by Iranian state media a few hours after the [[Imperial core|West]] claimed to have carried out the murder, and Iran declared a national mourning period of forty days. Along with Khamenei over 40 people were murdered by the imperialists including several of his family members.<ref name=":2">{{Web citation|author=The Hindu Staff|newspaper=The Hindu|title=Iran-Israel conflict LIVE: Iran Guards launch new wave of missiles against U.S. bases in Gulf, says state TV|date=2026-2-28|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/iran-israel-usa-conflict-strikes-attack-west-asia-us-trump-live-updates-february-28-2026/article70687247.ece}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Web citation|newspaper=The Orlando Sentinel|title=Iranian state media announces Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/02/28/the-latest-iranian-state-media-announces-ayatollah-ali-khameneis-death/}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Caolán Magee|newspaper=Al Jazeera|title=Iran begins 40-day mourning after Khamenei killed in US-Israeli attack|date=2026-03-01|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/1/iran-begins-40-day-mourning-after-khamenei-killed-in-us-israeli-attack|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260302185007/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/1/iran-begins-40-day-mourning-after-khamenei-killed-in-us-israeli-attack|archive-date=2026-03-02}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Web citation|author=CNN|newspaper=[[CNN]]|title=US and Israel attack Iran as Tehran retaliates across Middle East|date=2026-02-27|url=https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-attack-02-28-26-hnk-intl?t=1772281974736&Date=20260228&Profile=CNN&utm_content=1772282693&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:2026 deaths]]
[[Category:Iranian politicians]]
[[Category:Presidents of Iran]]
[[Category:Supreme leaders of Iran]]
[[Category:Victims of assassination]]
[[Category:Reactionaries]]
[[Category:Anti-imperialists]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Targets of bourgeois media]]

Homo sapiens

2025-12-08T13:56:57Z

70.115.131.7:

{{Stub}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |[[File:Lenin photograph colorised.jpg|thumb|Lenin, an example of the species]]
|-
! colspan="2" |Taxonomy
|-
|'''Kingdom'''
|Animalia
|-
|'''Unranked Clade 1'''
|Bilateria
|-
|'''Superphylum'''
|Deuterostomia
|-
|'''Phylum'''
|Chordata
|-
|'''Subphylum'''
|Vertebrata
|-
|'''Infraphylum'''
|Gnathostomata
|-
|'''Unraked Clade 2'''
|Osteichthyes
|-
|'''Superclass'''
|Tetrapoda
|-
|'''Series'''
|Amniota
|-
|'''Unranked Clade 3'''
|Synapsida
|-
|'''Class'''
|Mammalia
|-
|'''Subclass'''
|Theria
|-
|'''Infraclass'''
|Placentalia
|-
|'''Superorder'''
|Euarchontoglires
|-
|'''Order'''
|Primates
|-
|'''Infraorder'''
|Simiiformes
|-
|'''Parvorder'''
|Catarrhini
|-
|'''Superfamily'''
|Hominoidea
|-
|'''Family'''
|Hominidae
|-
|'''Subfamily'''
|Homininae
|-
|'''Tribe'''
|Hominini
|-
|'''Genus'''
|''Homo''
|-
|'''Species'''
|''Homo sapiens''
|}
[[File:Human world population density.png|thumb|''Homo sapiens'' population density in 2020. 90% of all humans live in the [[Northern Hemisphere]].]]
'''''Homo sapiens''''' ([[Latin]] for 'wise man') is the only extant species of the genus ''[[Homo]]'' (humans), first being classified by [[Kingdom of Sweden|Swedish]] biologist [[Carl Linnaeus]] in his magnum opus [[Systema Naturae|''Systema Naturae'']] (1758). It is also the most common species of [[primate]], numbering an estimated 8 billion as of 2022. ''Homo sapiens'' is characterised by its bipedality, dexterity, and well-developed brain which enables complex thought.

''Homo sapiens'' emerged in [[Africa]] roughly 300,000 years ago and have since spread to all other [[Continent|continents]] on [[Earth]], adapting to a variety of harsh climates by developing the appropriate [[Tool|tools]] and [[clothing]] and by [[Human impact on the environment|modifying their surroundings]]. ''Homo sapiens'' is a highly social species capable of creating complex social structures such as [[class]], [[family]], [[language]], and [[religion]].

Throughout most of their history, ''homo sapiens'' lived as [[Nomadism|nomadic]] [[Hunter-gatherer|hunter-gatherers]], but with the [[Agricultural Revolution|dawn of agriculture]] following the end of the [[Pleistocene|Ice Age]] around 12,000 years ago came the emergence of large-scale human settlements and, as a result, the formation of class society. Over time, as the existing [[relations of production]] have become an active hindrance to the further development of the [[productive forces]], this has led to [[class struggle]] and eventually the [[Revolution|overthrow]] of the existing social order. Through this process, ''homo sapiens'' (and no other known species) has advanced through the [[Slavery|slave]], [[Feudalism|feudal]]/[[Asiatic mode of production|Asiatic]], and [[Capitalism|capitalist]] [[Mode of production|modes of production]], albeit at varying speeds and not necessarily in a linear progression.

== History ==
{{Main article|Human history}}

== See also ==

* [[Human rights]]

[[Category:Pages needing references]]

Homo erectus

2025-08-14T17:38:43Z

70.115.131.7:

{{Infobox|Species=H.erectus|Genus=Homo|Family=Hominidae|Infraorder=Simiiformes|Order=Primate|Infraclass=Placentalia|Class=Mammalia|Unranked Clade=Synapsida|Series=Amniota|Superclass=Tetrapoda|Infraphylum=Gnathostomata|Subphylum=Vertebrata|Phylum=Chordata|Superphylum=Deuterostomia|Unranked clade 2=Bilateria|Kingdom=Animalia}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |(Image)
|-
! colspan="2" |Taxonomy
|-
|'''Kingdom'''
|Animalia
|-
|'''Unranked Clade 1'''
|Bilateria
|-
|'''Superphylum'''
|Deuterostomia
|-
|'''Phylum'''
|Chordata
|-
|'''Subphylum'''
|Vertebrata
|-
|'''Infraphylum'''
|Gnathostomata
|-
|'''Unraked Clade 2'''
|Osteichthyes
|-
|'''Superclass'''
|Tetrapoda
|-
|'''Series'''
|Amniota
|-
|'''Unranked Clade 3'''
|Synapsida
|-
|'''Class'''
|Mammalia
|-
|'''Subclass'''
|Theria
|-
|'''Infraclass'''
|Placentalia
|-
|'''Superorder'''
|Euarchontoglires
|-
|'''Order'''
|Primates
|-
|'''Infraorder'''
|Simiiformes
|-
|'''Parvorder'''
|Catarrhini
|-
|'''Superfamily'''
|Hominoidea
|-
|'''Family'''
|Hominidae
|-
|'''Subfamily'''
|Homininae
|-
|'''Tribe'''
|Hominini
|-
|'''Genus'''
|''Homo''
|-
|'''Species'''
|''Homo erectus''
|}

'''''Homo erectus''''' was a species of early human that lived during the Pleistocene epoch in Asia, Europe and Africa.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=Louise Barrett|year=2003|title=Walking with Cavemen|publisher=BBC Books|isbn=978-0755311774}}</ref> It was one of the first human species to have left Africa and laid the foundation for future humans such as ''Homo sapiens'' and ''Homo neanderthalensis''.<ref>{{Citation|author=Günter Bräuer, Emma Mbua|year=1992|title=Homo erectus features used in cladistics and their variability in Asian and African hominids|title-url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0047248492900325|publisher=Journal of Human Evolution|doi=10.1016/0047-2484(92)90032-5}}</ref> ''Homo erectus'', particularly the subspecies known as '''''Homo erectus pekinensis''''' or '''“Peking Man,”''' represents an important stage in [[human evolution]] and in the deep prehistory of classless society. Living in northern China roughly 750,000 to 300,000 years ago, these early humans developed a cooperative, egalitarian way of life rooted in communal hunting, food sharing, and mutual defense. Archaeological evidence from Zhoukoudian shows that Peking Man communities organized themselves without private property, class divisions, or exploitation, instead surviving through collective labor and shared resources. This mode of production—what Marxist anthropology identifies as primitive communism—was the foundation for human survival for hundreds of thousands of years before the rise of class society.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Sigrid Schmalzer|year=2008|title=The people's Peking man : popular science and human identity in twentieth-century China|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>

While the original fossils have since been lost, the specimen of Peking man became very important to China during the Mao era due to how it shaped Chinese science and Primitive Communism.<ref name=":1" /> Soviet scientists found ''Homo erectus'' fossils (sometimes called ''Homo georgicus'') in Georgia.<ref name=":0" /> Finds from the rest of Eurasia show how ''Homo erectus'' used fire and advanced tools (made from from stone and or plant material) to change their environment.<ref name=":0" />

== Material Conditions ==
The Asian population of ''Homo erectus'' (known from, Georgia, Vietnam, China, India and Indonesia) lived in humid forests and cold grasslands during a time when the Ice Age was starting to creep deeper into the Asian heartland. Archaeological, Paleontological, and anthropological evidence suggests that ''Homo erectus'', practiced a form of primitive communism characteristic of many primates (including all other early humans). Small, mobile bands probably shared resources communally, with no private ownership of tools, shelters, or hunting territories. Stone implements, gathered foods, and game meat appear to have been collectively used and distributed, ensuring group survival rather than individual accumulation. This cooperative mode of production was reinforced by mutual aid, social learning, and shared child-rearing responsibilities. While evidence for formal leadership is absent, decision-making may have been fluid and situational, with skilled hunters, elders, or knowledgeable foragers holding temporary influence based on need.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Citation|year=2014|title=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology|chapter=Zhoukoudian: Geography and Culture|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1899|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4419-0465-2}}</ref>

Peking Man lived in an environment where Asia’s diverse yet dangerous Pleistocene wildlife posed constant challenges. They shared the landscape with large herbivores such as the modern water buffalo, the giant panda, and the now-extinct elephant relatives ''Stegodon''<ref>{{Citation|author=L. Wang, Y. Lin, S. Chang and J. Yuan|year=1982|title=Mammalian fossils found in northwest part of Hunan province and their significance|publisher=Vertebrata PalAsiatica|volume=20}}</ref> and ''Palaeoloxodon''.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|author=Yongxiang Li|year=2014|title=Late Cenozoic Climate Change in Asia|chapter=Mammalian Evolution in Asia Linked to Climate Changes|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-94-007-7817-7|doi=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7817-7_5}}</ref> The unusual horned giraffid ''Sivatherium'' also roamed Ice Age Asia, while sika deer were likely common in China at the time.<ref name=":2" /> Predators were ever-present dangers. Modern leopards hunted in these regions, and, much like humans, they expanded their range from Africa into Asia. Tigers had also evolved by this period, adding to the threats faced by ''Homo erectus''. The most formidable predator may have been ''Homotherium'', a scimitar-toothed/saber-toothed cat related to the more famous ''Smilodon'' (often referred to by the bourgeois term “saber-toothed tiger”). ''Homotherium'' ranged across Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Africa during the Pleistocene, with fossils from China and India indicating it was a widespread and adaptable danger. While earlier research suggested that the saber-toothed cat ''Machairodus'' might have been a threat, it appears to have gone extinct before the emergence of ''Homo erectus''. There may, however, have been an overlap with ''Megantereon'', a larger saber-toothed cat.<ref>{{Citation|author=Mauricio Antón|year=2013|title=Sabertooth|publisher=University of Indiana Press|isbn=9780253010421}}</ref> Competition for meat and territory also came from brown bears and ''Pachycrocuta'', a giant hyena capable of scavenging or even displacing ''Homo erectus'' from kills. Another formidable neighbor was ''Gigantopithecus'', a giant orangutan relative inhabiting the same forests.<ref name=":0" /> These environments were dominated by tall grasses, bamboo trees, dipterocarps, palms, hazel, figs, pines, and podocarps.<ref>{{Citation|author=R. Wu|year=1983|title=Peking Man|title-url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/peking-man/|publisher=Scientific American}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Aljos Farjon|year=2010|title=A Handbook of the World's Conifers|publisher=Science}}</ref> In such challenging conditions, equitable resource sharing and cooperative social structures—hallmarks of ''Homo erectus''’s advanced form of primitive communism—were not merely cultural traits but vital survival strategies.<ref name=":1" />

==See also==
[[Primitive communism]]
== References ==

[[Category:Ancient history]]

German Reich (1918–1933)

2025-08-13T16:25:01Z

70.115.131.7: Sorry that was after Nazi Germany

{{Infobox country|name=German Reich|event1=[[Weimar Constitution]]|deputy1=[[Philipp Scheidemann]]|year_deputy2=1933 (last)|deputy2=[[Adolf Hitler]]|era=[[Interwar period]]|date_event1=11 August 1919|date_event2=29 March 1930|event2=Rule by decree begins|title_leader=President|event3=Hitler is appointed Chancellor|date_event3=30 January 1933|date_event4=27 February 1933|event4=[[Reichstag Fire]]|event_end=[[Enabling Act]]|capital=Berlin|year_deputy1=1919 (first)|title_deputy=Chancellor|native_name=Deutsches Reich|image_flag=Flag of Germany.svg|leader2=[[Paul von Hindenburg]]|life_span=1918-1933|year_start=9 November 1918|year_end=23 March 1933|year_leader1=1919-1925|leader1=[[Friedrich Ebert]]|year_leader2=1925-1933|government_type=Federal semi-presidential republic (1919-1930) 
Federal presidential republic under rule by decree (1930-1933)|currency=Papiermark (1919-1923) Rentenmark and Reichsmark (1923/24 - 1933)|p1=[[German Empire]]|s1=[[Nazi Germany]]|s2=[[Kingdom of Denmark]]|s3=|legislature=[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]|upper_house=Reichsrat|area_km2=467,787|population_estimate=62,411,000|population_estimate_year=1925|population_density_km2=133.129|image_map=Map of Weimar Germany.png|official_languages=German}}

The '''German Reich''' (German: ''Deutsches Reich)'' from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, commonly known as the '''Weimar Republic''' (German: ''Weimarer Republik''), was a federal semi-presidential republic, with rule by decree beginning on 29 March 1930.

With the Enabling Act being enacted on 23 March 1933, giving the Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, the authority to create and enforce laws without the consent of the legislature or the President, the Weimar Republic was effectively dissolved.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=von Lüpke-Schwarz, Marc|date=2013-03-23|title=The law that 'enabled' Hitler's dictatorship|url=https://www.dw.com/en/the-law-that-enabled-hitlers-dictatorship/a-16689839|newspaper=Deutsche Welle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323202130/http://www.dw.com/en/the-law-that-enabled-hitlers-dictatorship/a-16689839|archive-date=2022-03-23}}</ref>

== Name ==
The name of the country remained unchanged from the imperial era, due to various factions vying for power being unable to decide upon a name, however the official name was rarely used.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|journalist=Schnurr, Eva-Maria|date=2014-09-30|title=Der Name des Feindes: Warum heißt die erste deutsche Demokratie eigentlich 'Weimarer Republik?|url=https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/spiegelgeschichte/d-129494116.html|newspaper=Der Spiegel (in German)}}</ref>

The [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SDP) favoured the term "Deutsche Republik" (German Republic), with this becoming the most commonly used term for the country.<ref name=":0" />

The Centre Party (Zentrum) preferred "Deutscher Volksstaat" (German People's State).<ref name=":0" />

The terms "Republik von Weimar" (Republic of Weimar) and "Weimarer Republik" (Weimar Republic) were first coined by [[Adolf Hitler]] in early 1929.<ref name=":0" />

== History ==

=== Background ===
After four years of war on multiple fronts in Europe and throughout the world, the final Allied offensive, the Hundred Days offensive, began in August 1918. The position of Germany and the rest of the Central Powers continued to rapidly deteriorate.

Awareness of impending military defeat quickly spread, and when a naval order was issued on 24 October 1918 (Op. 269/A I),<ref>Grant, ''U-Boat Intelligence'', pp. 163-64

Gladisch, ''Nordesee, Bd.7,'' pp. 344–347</ref> intending to prepare for a final, decisive battle, between the German High Seas Fleet and the British Grand Fleet, sailors mutinied.

News of the mutinies spread, triggering a general revolutionary spirit to spread, which led to the toppling of the monarchy, and the beginning of the [[November Revolution]].

=== November Revolution (1918-19) ===
As news of the [[Kiel mutiny]] spread, sailors, soldiers, and workers throughout Germany began to organize Workers' and Soldiers' Councils (''Arbeiter und Soldatenräte''), which were modelled after the [[Soviet (governmental body)|Soviets]] of the [[Russian revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]]. The revolution spread throughout Germany, with participants seizing control of military and civil powers in many cities.

==== Opposition of the SPD to the socialist revolution ====
With revolutionary fervour at its peak, the formation of a socialist German republic seemed inevitable.

The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who had already betrayed many of its principles four years prior, when it backed Germany's entry into the [[First World War]], encouraged affiliated trade unions to refrain from striking, and agreed not to criticize the government or the war, under the policy of ''Burgfriedenspolitik'' (literally "Castle peace politics", referring to a political truce between all parties).

Opposition to ''Burgfriedenspolitik'' came initially from [[Karl Liebknecht]], the son of the SPD's founder, [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]], being joined later by [[Otto Rühle]], [[Rosa Luxemburg]], [[Clara Zetkin]], and others. They went on to found the [[Spartacus League]] (German: ''Spartakusbund''), which was renamed as the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (German: ''Kommunistiche Partei Deutschlands'', KPD) at its first party congress, from 30 December 1918 to 1 January 1919.

On 9 November 1918, Karl Liebknecht proclaimed the Free Socialist Republic of Germany at the ''Berliner Stadtschloss''. Two hours earlier, the "German Republic" had been proclaimed by Philipp Scheidemann at the ''Reichstag'' building. Leader of the SPD, [[Friedrich Ebert]], was opposed to the proclamation of a republic,<ref>{{News citation|author=Sturm, Reinhard|date=2011-12-23|title=Weimarer Republik|url=http://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/informationen-zur-politischen-bildung/55943/weimarer-republik|newspaper=Informationen zur Politischen Bildung|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810164946/http://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/informationen-zur-politischen-bildung/55943/weimarer-republik|archive-date=2018-08-10}}</ref> and even asked Prince Maximilian, regent of the German Empire to keep his position as regent.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Haffner, Sebastian|year=2002|title=Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19|publisher=Kindler|isbn=3-463-40423-0}}</ref>:90

A day later, on 10 November 1918, Friedrich Ebert signed a deal with Wilhelm Groener, Quartermaster General of the German Army. Ebert promised Groener that he would crush the revolution, dismantle the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, and ensure the continued authority and autonomy of the army in exchange for the army's loyalty.<ref name=":1" />:120-121<ref>[https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/189772/8b9e17bd8d64e64c8e3a95fc2305e132/november_revolution-data.pdf Historical Exhibition presented by the German Bundestag]</ref>

Having allied themselves with reactionary forces, Ebert and the SPD focused on crushing the revolution. On December 24, on Ebert's order, the ''Reichsmarinedivision'', a military division that had rebelled due to outstanding pay and the quality of their accommodation, was attacked by regular troops.<ref name=":1" />:139-147

From January 9 to January 12, regular troops and the ''Freikorps'', led by Gustav Noske, the SPD's Defence Minister, bloodily suppresed the Spartacist Uprising.<ref name=":1" />:163 On January 15, members of the ''Freikorps'', murdered Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on Noske's order.<ref name=":1" />:169-182

Gustav Noske ordered the ''Freikorps'' to violently put down any unrest following the murder of Liebknecht and Luxemburg.<ref name=":1" />:183-196

== Economy ==

=== Inflation ===
After the First World War, Germany had to pay debt to the [[Allies of the First World War|Allies]] in foreign currencies. It could not earn enough money because of [[Tariff|tariffs]], so it attempted to print Reichsmarks in order to pay its debt. [[Hyperinflation]] destroyed the mark's exchange rate, leading import prices to increase. The Reichsbank then printed even more money to make it practical to sell basic goods like food.<ref>{{Web citation|date=2023-05-10|title=NY Times is wrong on dedollarization: Economist Michael Hudson debunks Paul Krugman’s dollar defense|url=https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/05/10/ny-times-dedollarization-michael-hudson-paul-krugman-dollar/|newspaper=[[Geopolitical Economy Report]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510154859/https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/05/10/ny-times-dedollarization-michael-hudson-paul-krugman-dollar/|archive-date=2023-05-10|author=[[Ben Norton]], [[Michael Hudson]]}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Former states]]
[[Category:History of Germany]]

German Empire (1871–1918)

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{{Infobox country
| name = German Empire
| native_name = Deutsches Kaiserreich
| image_flag = Flag of the German Empire.png
| capital = Berlin
| largest_city = Berlin
| mode_of_production = [[Imperialism|Imperialist]] [[Capitalism]]
| life_span = 1871–1918
| image_map = German Empire.png
| map_width = 290
| official_languages = German
| area_km2 = 540,858
| population_census = 64,925,993
| population_census_year = 1910
|p1=[[North German Confederation]]|s1=[[German Reich (1918–1933)|Weimar Republic]]|flag_p2=1080px-Flag of the Kingdom of Prussia (1803-1892).svg.png|p2=[[Kingdom of Prussia]]|p3=[[Kingdom of Saxony]]|flag_p4=Flag of Bavaria (striped).svg.png|p4=[[Kingdom of Bavaria]]|p5=[[Kingdom of Württemberg]]|p6=[[Grand Duchy of Baden]]|p7=[[Second republic of France]]|flag_s1=Flag of Germany.svg|flag_s2=Flag of Poland (1927–1980).svg|s2=[[Republic of Poland (1918–1939)|Republic of Poland]]|flag_s3=Czech flag.png|s3=[[Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Czechoslovakia]]|flag_s4=Flag of Lithuania.svg|s4=[[Republic of Lithuania]]|flag_s5=Flag of France.svg|s5=[[French Republic (1870–1940)|France]]|flag_s6=Belgian flag.png|s6=[[Belgium]]|s7=[[Apartheid South Africa]]|s8=[[British Tanganyika]]|s9=[[British Chinese territories]]|s10=[[Danzig]]|s11=[[Kingdom of Denmark]]|s12=[[Saar Basin]]| government_type = [[Federalism|Federal]] [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary]] [[Constitutional monarchy|semi-constitutional monarchy]]<ref>Nipperdey, Thomas, "Deutsche Geschichte 1866-1918: Zweiter Band: Machtstaat vor der Demokratie" (1995), p. 98–108.</ref><ref>Röhl, John C. G. "Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Concise Life" (2014), p. 172–173.</ref>
* Under a [[military dictatorship]]<ref>Wheeler-Bennett, John (1967). ''The Nemesis of Power The German Army in Politics 1918–1945''. London: Macmillan. pp. 13–14.</ref> (1916–1918)
| title_leader = [[German Emperor|Emperor]]
| leader1 = [[William I, German Emperor|Wilhelm I]]
| year_leader1 = 1871–1888
| leader2 = [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Friedrich III]]
| year_leader2 = 1888
| leader3 = [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]]
| year_leader3 = 1888–1918
| title_deputy = [[List of Chancellors of Germany#German Empire, Reichskanzler (1871–1918)|Chancellor]]
| deputy1 = [[Otto von Bismarck]]
| year_deputy1 = 1871–1890
| deputy2 = [[Leo von Caprivi]]
| year_deputy2 = 1890–1894
| deputy3 = [[Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst|Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst]]
| year_deputy3 = 1894–1900
| deputy4 = [[Bernhard von Bülow]]
| year_deputy4 = 1900–1909
| deputy5 = [[Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg]]
| year_deputy5 = 1909–1917
| deputy6 = [[Georg Michaelis]]
| year_deputy6 = 1917
| deputy7 = [[Georg von Hertling]]
| year_deputy7 = 1917–1918
| deputy8 = [[Prince Maximilian of Baden|Max von Baden]]
| year_deputy8 = 1918
}}

The '''German Empire''' ''(German: Deutsches Reich)'', also referred to as '''Imperial Germany''' ''(German: Deutsches Kaiserreich)'', the '''Second Reich''' ''(German: Zweites Reich)'', was a country in Central Europe that existed from the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1871 until the end of the [[First World War]]. In November 1918, the German monarchy was overthrown and the [[German Reich (1918–1933)|Weimar Republic]] was established.

== Unification ==
In the mid-19th century, Germany was divided into 39 states. The dominant state, [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], was ruled by an aristocracy called the Junkers. Prussia fought against [[Kingdom of Denmark|Denmark]] in 1864 over the status of Schleswig and Holstein and defeated [[Austrian Empire (1804–1867)|Austria]] in 1866, becoming the leading force in the German [[Nationalism|nationalist]] movement and forming the [[North German Confederation]]. Prussia took control of the rest of Germany in 1870 when it went to war against [[Second French Empire|France]]. [[Otto von Bismarck]], a Prussian Junker, became the first chancellor of Germany.<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=The Age of Blood and Iron|page=159–161|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

== Economy ==
Germany rapidly industrialized following its unification, with coal production increasing from 34 to 277 million tons, pig-iron increasing from 1.3 to 14.7 million tons, and steel increasing from 0.3 to 14 million tons between 1870 and 1914. In 1879, Germany introduced a series of tariffs, which rose to 13% by 1914.<ref name=":0222" />

== Healthcare ==
Otto von Bismarck introduced [[Universal healthcare|state health insurance]] in 1883 as a concession to weaken the German [[Socialism|socialist]] movement. Workers had to pay two-thirds of health premiums by themselves, and the [[SPD]] and [[KPD]] organized their own health services, the Workers' Samaritan Federation and the Proletarian Health Service, respectively.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Tricontinental]]|title=‘Socialism Is the Best Prophylaxis’: The German Democratic Republic’s Health Care System|date=2023-02-14|url=https://thetricontinental.org/studies-2-ddr-health-care-2/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214134923/https://thetricontinental.org/studies-2-ddr-health-care-2/#_Toc113466469|archive-date=2023-02-14|retrieved=2023-02-26}}</ref>

== Colonialism ==
The German Empire colonized parts of [[Africa]] and [[Oceania]]. Parts of Africa colonized by Germany include what are now [[United Republic of Tanzania|Tanzania]], [[Togolese Republic|Togo]], [[Republic of Cameroon|Cameroon]], and [[Republic of Namibia|Namibia]].<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=Alys Beverton|newspaper=BlackPast|title=Maji Maji Uprising (1905-1907)|date=2009-06-21|url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/maji-maji-uprising-1905-1907/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605161229/https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/maji-maji-uprising-1905-1907/|archive-date=2024-06-05}}</ref> Germany lost control of its colonies after the First World War.<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Tricontinental]]|title=Risen from the Ruins: The Economic History of Socialism in the German Democratic Republic|date=2021-04-20|url=https://thetricontinental.org/studies-1-ddr/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426161306/https://thetricontinental.org/studies-1-ddr/|archive-date=2022-04-26|retrieved=2022-08-12}}</ref>

In what is now Namibia, the German colonizers committed genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples.<ref name=":1" /> In what is now Tanzania, Germany adopted famine as a weapon to suppress the 1905-1907 [[Maji Maji uprising]], purposely destroying the crops of suspected Maji Maji supporters.<ref name=":0" />

Writing about [[German East Africa]], historian [[Walter Rodney]] notes that from early on in the colonization process, "forced labor was prominent everywhere" and described it as a "typical colonial situation in which taxes were imposed on Africans not so much for the revenue which resulted but as a means of propelling them into the labour market and the money economy, and thereby drawing off the surplus" and explained that [[Plantation|plantations]] were important in the formative period of the colonial political economy under German hegemony, and that though plantation productivity was low, it was a profitable system under colonial conditions because the employer was not responsible for providing a living wage to the laborer. The colonial economy of German East Africa was geared around the exportation of [[Primary product|primary]] agricultural [[Commodity|commodities]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Walter Rodney|year=1974|title=The political economy of colonial Tanganyika, 1890-1939|title-url=https://repository.uneca.org/handle/10855/42657|pdf=https://repository.uneca.org/bitstream/handle/10855/42657/b11950316.pdf|city=Dakar|publisher=United Nations. Economic Commission for Africa. African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP)}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:History of Germany]]

German Reich (1918–1933)

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70.115.131.7:

{{Infobox country|name=German Reich|event1=[[Weimar Constitution]]|deputy1=[[Philipp Scheidemann]]|year_deputy2=1933 (last)|deputy2=[[Adolf Hitler]]|era=[[Interwar period]]|date_event1=11 August 1919|date_event2=29 March 1930|event2=Rule by decree begins|title_leader=President|event3=Hitler is appointed Chancellor|date_event3=30 January 1933|date_event4=27 February 1933|event4=[[Reichstag Fire]]|event_end=[[Enabling Act]]|capital=Berlin|year_deputy1=1919 (first)|title_deputy=Chancellor|native_name=Deutsches Reich|image_flag=Flag of Germany.svg|leader2=[[Paul von Hindenburg]]|life_span=1918-1933|year_start=9 November 1918|year_end=23 March 1933|year_leader1=1919-1925|leader1=[[Friedrich Ebert]]|year_leader2=1925-1933|government_type=Federal semi-presidential republic (1919-1930) 
Federal presidential republic under rule by decree (1930-1933)|currency=Papiermark (1919-1923) Rentenmark and Reichsmark (1923/24 - 1933)|p1=[[German Empire]]|s1=[[Nazi Germany]]|s2=[[Kingdom of Denmark]]|s3=[[Kingdom of the Netherlands]]|legislature=[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]|upper_house=Reichsrat|area_km2=467,787|population_estimate=62,411,000|population_estimate_year=1925|population_density_km2=133.129|image_map=Map of Weimar Germany.png|official_languages=German}}

The '''German Reich''' (German: ''Deutsches Reich)'' from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, commonly known as the '''Weimar Republic''' (German: ''Weimarer Republik''), was a federal semi-presidential republic, with rule by decree beginning on 29 March 1930.

With the Enabling Act being enacted on 23 March 1933, giving the Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, the authority to create and enforce laws without the consent of the legislature or the President, the Weimar Republic was effectively dissolved.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=von Lüpke-Schwarz, Marc|date=2013-03-23|title=The law that 'enabled' Hitler's dictatorship|url=https://www.dw.com/en/the-law-that-enabled-hitlers-dictatorship/a-16689839|newspaper=Deutsche Welle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323202130/http://www.dw.com/en/the-law-that-enabled-hitlers-dictatorship/a-16689839|archive-date=2022-03-23}}</ref>

== Name ==
The name of the country remained unchanged from the imperial era, due to various factions vying for power being unable to decide upon a name, however the official name was rarely used.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|journalist=Schnurr, Eva-Maria|date=2014-09-30|title=Der Name des Feindes: Warum heißt die erste deutsche Demokratie eigentlich 'Weimarer Republik?|url=https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/spiegelgeschichte/d-129494116.html|newspaper=Der Spiegel (in German)}}</ref>

The [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SDP) favoured the term "Deutsche Republik" (German Republic), with this becoming the most commonly used term for the country.<ref name=":0" />

The Centre Party (Zentrum) preferred "Deutscher Volksstaat" (German People's State).<ref name=":0" />

The terms "Republik von Weimar" (Republic of Weimar) and "Weimarer Republik" (Weimar Republic) were first coined by [[Adolf Hitler]] in early 1929.<ref name=":0" />

== History ==

=== Background ===
After four years of war on multiple fronts in Europe and throughout the world, the final Allied offensive, the Hundred Days offensive, began in August 1918. The position of Germany and the rest of the Central Powers continued to rapidly deteriorate.

Awareness of impending military defeat quickly spread, and when a naval order was issued on 24 October 1918 (Op. 269/A I),<ref>Grant, ''U-Boat Intelligence'', pp. 163-64

Gladisch, ''Nordesee, Bd.7,'' pp. 344–347</ref> intending to prepare for a final, decisive battle, between the German High Seas Fleet and the British Grand Fleet, sailors mutinied.

News of the mutinies spread, triggering a general revolutionary spirit to spread, which led to the toppling of the monarchy, and the beginning of the [[November Revolution]].

=== November Revolution (1918-19) ===
As news of the [[Kiel mutiny]] spread, sailors, soldiers, and workers throughout Germany began to organize Workers' and Soldiers' Councils (''Arbeiter und Soldatenräte''), which were modelled after the [[Soviet (governmental body)|Soviets]] of the [[Russian revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]]. The revolution spread throughout Germany, with participants seizing control of military and civil powers in many cities.

==== Opposition of the SPD to the socialist revolution ====
With revolutionary fervour at its peak, the formation of a socialist German republic seemed inevitable.

The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who had already betrayed many of its principles four years prior, when it backed Germany's entry into the [[First World War]], encouraged affiliated trade unions to refrain from striking, and agreed not to criticize the government or the war, under the policy of ''Burgfriedenspolitik'' (literally "Castle peace politics", referring to a political truce between all parties).

Opposition to ''Burgfriedenspolitik'' came initially from [[Karl Liebknecht]], the son of the SPD's founder, [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]], being joined later by [[Otto Rühle]], [[Rosa Luxemburg]], [[Clara Zetkin]], and others. They went on to found the [[Spartacus League]] (German: ''Spartakusbund''), which was renamed as the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (German: ''Kommunistiche Partei Deutschlands'', KPD) at its first party congress, from 30 December 1918 to 1 January 1919.

On 9 November 1918, Karl Liebknecht proclaimed the Free Socialist Republic of Germany at the ''Berliner Stadtschloss''. Two hours earlier, the "German Republic" had been proclaimed by Philipp Scheidemann at the ''Reichstag'' building. Leader of the SPD, [[Friedrich Ebert]], was opposed to the proclamation of a republic,<ref>{{News citation|author=Sturm, Reinhard|date=2011-12-23|title=Weimarer Republik|url=http://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/informationen-zur-politischen-bildung/55943/weimarer-republik|newspaper=Informationen zur Politischen Bildung|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810164946/http://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/informationen-zur-politischen-bildung/55943/weimarer-republik|archive-date=2018-08-10}}</ref> and even asked Prince Maximilian, regent of the German Empire to keep his position as regent.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Haffner, Sebastian|year=2002|title=Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19|publisher=Kindler|isbn=3-463-40423-0}}</ref>:90

A day later, on 10 November 1918, Friedrich Ebert signed a deal with Wilhelm Groener, Quartermaster General of the German Army. Ebert promised Groener that he would crush the revolution, dismantle the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, and ensure the continued authority and autonomy of the army in exchange for the army's loyalty.<ref name=":1" />:120-121<ref>[https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/189772/8b9e17bd8d64e64c8e3a95fc2305e132/november_revolution-data.pdf Historical Exhibition presented by the German Bundestag]</ref>

Having allied themselves with reactionary forces, Ebert and the SPD focused on crushing the revolution. On December 24, on Ebert's order, the ''Reichsmarinedivision'', a military division that had rebelled due to outstanding pay and the quality of their accommodation, was attacked by regular troops.<ref name=":1" />:139-147

From January 9 to January 12, regular troops and the ''Freikorps'', led by Gustav Noske, the SPD's Defence Minister, bloodily suppresed the Spartacist Uprising.<ref name=":1" />:163 On January 15, members of the ''Freikorps'', murdered Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on Noske's order.<ref name=":1" />:169-182

Gustav Noske ordered the ''Freikorps'' to violently put down any unrest following the murder of Liebknecht and Luxemburg.<ref name=":1" />:183-196

== Economy ==

=== Inflation ===
After the First World War, Germany had to pay debt to the [[Allies of the First World War|Allies]] in foreign currencies. It could not earn enough money because of [[Tariff|tariffs]], so it attempted to print Reichsmarks in order to pay its debt. [[Hyperinflation]] destroyed the mark's exchange rate, leading import prices to increase. The Reichsbank then printed even more money to make it practical to sell basic goods like food.<ref>{{Web citation|date=2023-05-10|title=NY Times is wrong on dedollarization: Economist Michael Hudson debunks Paul Krugman’s dollar defense|url=https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/05/10/ny-times-dedollarization-michael-hudson-paul-krugman-dollar/|newspaper=[[Geopolitical Economy Report]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510154859/https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/05/10/ny-times-dedollarization-michael-hudson-paul-krugman-dollar/|archive-date=2023-05-10|author=[[Ben Norton]], [[Michael Hudson]]}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Former states]]
[[Category:History of Germany]]

German Empire (1871–1918)

2025-08-12T21:05:47Z

70.115.131.7:

{{Infobox country
| name = German Empire
| native_name = Deutsches Kaiserreich
| image_flag = Flag of the German Empire.png
| capital = Berlin
| largest_city = Berlin
| mode_of_production = [[Imperialism|Imperialist]] [[Capitalism]]
| life_span = 1871–1918
| image_map = German Empire.png
| map_width = 290
| official_languages = German
| area_km2 = 540,858
| population_census = 64,925,993
| population_census_year = 1910
|p1=[[North German Confederation]]|s1=[[German Reich (1918–1933)|Weimar Republic]]|flag_p2=1080px-Flag of the Kingdom of Prussia (1803-1892).svg.png|p2=[[Kingdom of Prussia]]|p3=[[Kingdom of Saxony]]|flag_p4=Flag of Bavaria (striped).svg.png|p4=[[Kingdom of Bavaria]]|p5=[[Kingdom of Württemberg]]|p6=[[Grand Duchy of Baden]]|p7=[[Second republic of France]]|flag_s1=Flag of Germany.svg|flag_s2=Flag of Poland (1927–1980).svg|s2=[[Republic of Poland (1918–1939)|Republic of Poland]]|flag_s3=Czech flag.png|s3=[[Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Czechoslovakia]]|flag_s4=Flag of Lithuania.svg|s4=[[Republic of Lithuania]]|flag_s5=Flag of France.svg|s5=[[French Republic (1870–1940)|France]]|flag_s6=Belgian flag.png|s6=[[Belgium]]|s7=[[Apartheid South Africa]]|s8=[[British Tanganyika]]|s9=[[British Chinese territories]]|s10=[[Danzig]]| government_type = [[Federalism|Federal]] [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary]] [[Constitutional monarchy|semi-constitutional monarchy]]<ref>Nipperdey, Thomas, "Deutsche Geschichte 1866-1918: Zweiter Band: Machtstaat vor der Demokratie" (1995), p. 98–108.</ref><ref>Röhl, John C. G. "Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Concise Life" (2014), p. 172–173.</ref>
* Under a [[military dictatorship]]<ref>Wheeler-Bennett, John (1967). ''The Nemesis of Power The German Army in Politics 1918–1945''. London: Macmillan. pp. 13–14.</ref> (1916–1918)
| title_leader = [[German Emperor|Emperor]]
| leader1 = [[William I, German Emperor|Wilhelm I]]
| year_leader1 = 1871–1888
| leader2 = [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Friedrich III]]
| year_leader2 = 1888
| leader3 = [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]]
| year_leader3 = 1888–1918
| title_deputy = [[List of Chancellors of Germany#German Empire, Reichskanzler (1871–1918)|Chancellor]]
| deputy1 = [[Otto von Bismarck]]
| year_deputy1 = 1871–1890
| deputy2 = [[Leo von Caprivi]]
| year_deputy2 = 1890–1894
| deputy3 = [[Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst|Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst]]
| year_deputy3 = 1894–1900
| deputy4 = [[Bernhard von Bülow]]
| year_deputy4 = 1900–1909
| deputy5 = [[Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg]]
| year_deputy5 = 1909–1917
| deputy6 = [[Georg Michaelis]]
| year_deputy6 = 1917
| deputy7 = [[Georg von Hertling]]
| year_deputy7 = 1917–1918
| deputy8 = [[Prince Maximilian of Baden|Max von Baden]]
| year_deputy8 = 1918
}}

The '''German Empire''' ''(German: Deutsches Reich)'', also referred to as '''Imperial Germany''' ''(German: Deutsches Kaiserreich)'', the '''Second Reich''' ''(German: Zweites Reich)'', was a country in Central Europe that existed from the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1871 until the end of the [[First World War]]. In November 1918, the German monarchy was overthrown and the [[German Reich (1918–1933)|Weimar Republic]] was established.

== Unification ==
In the mid-19th century, Germany was divided into 39 states. The dominant state, [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], was ruled by an aristocracy called the Junkers. Prussia fought against [[Kingdom of Denmark|Denmark]] in 1864 over the status of Schleswig and Holstein and defeated [[Austrian Empire (1804–1867)|Austria]] in 1866, becoming the leading force in the German [[Nationalism|nationalist]] movement and forming the [[North German Confederation]]. Prussia took control of the rest of Germany in 1870 when it went to war against [[Second French Empire|France]]. [[Otto von Bismarck]], a Prussian Junker, became the first chancellor of Germany.<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=The Age of Blood and Iron|page=159–161|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

== Economy ==
Germany rapidly industrialized following its unification, with coal production increasing from 34 to 277 million tons, pig-iron increasing from 1.3 to 14.7 million tons, and steel increasing from 0.3 to 14 million tons between 1870 and 1914. In 1879, Germany introduced a series of tariffs, which rose to 13% by 1914.<ref name=":0222" />

== Healthcare ==
Otto von Bismarck introduced [[Universal healthcare|state health insurance]] in 1883 as a concession to weaken the German [[Socialism|socialist]] movement. Workers had to pay two-thirds of health premiums by themselves, and the [[SPD]] and [[KPD]] organized their own health services, the Workers' Samaritan Federation and the Proletarian Health Service, respectively.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Tricontinental]]|title=‘Socialism Is the Best Prophylaxis’: The German Democratic Republic’s Health Care System|date=2023-02-14|url=https://thetricontinental.org/studies-2-ddr-health-care-2/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214134923/https://thetricontinental.org/studies-2-ddr-health-care-2/#_Toc113466469|archive-date=2023-02-14|retrieved=2023-02-26}}</ref>

== Colonialism ==
The German Empire colonized parts of [[Africa]] and [[Oceania]]. Parts of Africa colonized by Germany include what are now [[United Republic of Tanzania|Tanzania]], [[Togolese Republic|Togo]], [[Republic of Cameroon|Cameroon]], and [[Republic of Namibia|Namibia]].<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=Alys Beverton|newspaper=BlackPast|title=Maji Maji Uprising (1905-1907)|date=2009-06-21|url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/maji-maji-uprising-1905-1907/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605161229/https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/maji-maji-uprising-1905-1907/|archive-date=2024-06-05}}</ref> Germany lost control of its colonies after the First World War.<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Tricontinental]]|title=Risen from the Ruins: The Economic History of Socialism in the German Democratic Republic|date=2021-04-20|url=https://thetricontinental.org/studies-1-ddr/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426161306/https://thetricontinental.org/studies-1-ddr/|archive-date=2022-04-26|retrieved=2022-08-12}}</ref>

In what is now Namibia, the German colonizers committed genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples.<ref name=":1" /> In what is now Tanzania, Germany adopted famine as a weapon to suppress the 1905-1907 [[Maji Maji uprising]], purposely destroying the crops of suspected Maji Maji supporters.<ref name=":0" />

Writing about [[German East Africa]], historian [[Walter Rodney]] notes that from early on in the colonization process, "forced labor was prominent everywhere" and described it as a "typical colonial situation in which taxes were imposed on Africans not so much for the revenue which resulted but as a means of propelling them into the labour market and the money economy, and thereby drawing off the surplus" and explained that [[Plantation|plantations]] were important in the formative period of the colonial political economy under German hegemony, and that though plantation productivity was low, it was a profitable system under colonial conditions because the employer was not responsible for providing a living wage to the laborer. The colonial economy of German East Africa was geared around the exportation of [[Primary product|primary]] agricultural [[Commodity|commodities]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Walter Rodney|year=1974|title=The political economy of colonial Tanganyika, 1890-1939|title-url=https://repository.uneca.org/handle/10855/42657|pdf=https://repository.uneca.org/bitstream/handle/10855/42657/b11950316.pdf|city=Dakar|publisher=United Nations. Economic Commission for Africa. African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP)}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:History of Germany]]

Qing dynasty (1636–1912)

2025-08-12T20:49:49Z

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{{Distinguish|[[Qin dynasty]]}}{{Infobox country|name=Great Qing|native_name=清 (qīng) ᡩᠠᡳ᠌ᠴᡳᠩ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ གྲེཨཏ་ཆིང|year_start=1636|year_end=1912|image_symbol=Qing imperial seal.png|capital=Beijing|largest_city=Beijing|government_type=Absolute monarchy (1636–1911) Constitutional monarchy (1911–1912)|mode_of_production=[[Feudalism]]|area_km2=14,700,000|image_map_caption=The Qing Dynasty in 1820 C.E.|common_languages=Mandarin, Mongolian, Manchu, Tibetan|population_estimate=432,000,000|population_estimate_year=1912|p1=[[Ming dynasty]]|s1=[[Republic of China]]|s2=[[People's Republic of China]]|s3=[[Mongolia]]|s4=[[British Raj]]|s5=[[British Hong Kong]]|s6=[[Austrian Empire]]|s7=[[German Empire]]|s8=[[Tibet]]|s9=[[Imperial Japan]]|s10=[[Japanese Manchukuo]]|s11=[[Second East Turkestan Republic]]|s12=[[Russian Empire]]|s13=[[Tuva]]|s14=[[Soviet Union]]|image_flag=Qing flag.png|flag_caption=Flag (1889–1912)|image_map=Map of Qing Dynasty 1820.png}}

The '''Qing dynasty''' was the last dynasty to control [[People's Republic of China|China]]. It was established in 1636 by [[Hong Taiji]], an ethnic [[Manchu people|Manchu]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Evelyn S. Rawski|year=1991|title=Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society|chapter=Ch'ing Imperial Marriage and Problems of Rulership|section=|page=177|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520069305|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> as a successor to the [[Later Jin (1616–1636)|Later Jin dynasty]]. While initially isolated to [[Manchuria]] (Northeastern China), the fall of the [[Ming dynasty (1368–1644)|Ming dynasty]] in 1644 allowed the Qing to spread all throughout China and beyond. It stayed in power until the [[Xinhai Revolution]] of 1912, a [[bourgeois revolution]] which led to the creation of the [[Republic of China]].

In the early 1700s, China produced 35% of the world's GDP and printed half the world's books. European countries bought Chinese porcelain, silk, and tea with gold, leading the British to sell over 30,000 tons of silver to China.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=Stansfield Smith|newspaper=[[MR Online]]|title=Britain’s century long Opium trafficking and China’s century of humiliation (1839-1949)|date=2024-05-30|url=https://mronline.org/2024/05/30/britains-century-long-opium-trafficking-and-chinas-century-of-humiliation-1839-1949/|retrieved=2024-05-31}}</ref>

The dynasty suffered from the [[imperialism]] of [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japan]] and [[Europe]] and lost [[Hong Kong Special Administrative Region|Hong Kong]] to [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|Britain]] after the [[First Opium War]] in 1839.<ref>{{Citation|author=|year=1847|title=China; political, commercial, and social; an official report|chapter=|section=|page=84|quote=|pdf=|city=London|publisher=James Madden|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://archive.org/details/chinapoliticalc00martgoog/page/84/mode/2up|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> In 1895, the Qing dynasty lost control over [[Taiwan Province|Taiwan]] and [[Joseon dynasty|Korea]] in the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] when they were taken over by Japan.<ref>{{Citation|author=Jinwung Kim|year=2012|title=A History of Korea: From "Land of the Morning Calm" to States in Conflict|chapter=|section=|page=304|quote=|pdf=|city=New York City|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253000248|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The [[Boxer Rebellion]] at the turn of the century attempted to reestablish China's sovereignty but was crushed by [[Eight-Nation Alliance|a Western military alliance]] which included the [[United States of America|United States]], [[Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1867–1918)|Austria-Hungary]], Britain, [[French Third Republic (1870–1940)|France]], and others.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Razmy Baroud|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Xi vs Trudeau: How China Is Rewriting History with the Colonial West|date=2022-11-28|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/xi-trudeau-china-rewriting-competition-with-west/282824/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128173353/https://www.mintpressnews.com/xi-trudeau-china-rewriting-competition-with-west/282824/|archive-date=2022-11-28|retrieved=2022-11-29}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Manchu conquest ===
In the Ming dynasty, the Great Wall represented the frontier between "settled" territory on the inside, and nomadic, loose populations on the outside that may have been governed by the empire, but were not really Chinese. To the far east of the wall, however, in the coastal areas, Chinese settlers had started occupying land beyond the wall in what is now sometimes called Southern Manchuria, more accurately [[Liaoning Province]]. When the Manchu set out to conquer China, that area became the first the conquered.<ref name=":024">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 25: The Rise of the Manchus|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

In 1626, the Manchus proclaimed a revived Jin dynasty (the later Jin dynasty). They established a capital city at what is now the city of [[Shenyang]], built in the same layout as the city of Beijing. In 1635, the Manchu language was made the official language of the court. In 1636, the name of the dynasty was changed from Jin to Qing, meaning pure (and from which we derive the name ''China'' in English). The symbolism behind the name showed an ambition to do more than simply revive the name of the Jin but also to purify China of the decadence of the Ming dynasty—tying their ambitions to the Mandate of Heaven which the Manchus said the Ming had lost.<ref name=":024" />

In the 1640s, military campaigns against the Ming became more active and larger. In 1641, a Ming garrison was besieged and captured by the Manchus, marking a great victory. Additionally, several of the defeated Ming generals defected and joined the Manchus in their conquest. By early 1644, the Manchus had established their control over all of the northeast right up to the Great Wall, which they had not yet been able to penetrate.<ref name=":024" />

In China, the situation was bleak: the crises that had been building up in years prior had not been addressed due to a factionalized government and the financial problems of the dynasty had began to intensify as well. Silver imports into China from China and Spain decreased drastically, which put a limit on monetization and thus the possible growth of the Chinese economy. Zhu Youjian (朱由檢, ''Zhū Yóujiǎn''), crowned emperor of Ming in 1628, tried to get the economy under control through a series of reforms, but it was too late to save it.<ref name=":024" />

The problems plaguing the empire compounded throughout his reign. For example, dispossessed farmers started organizing themselves in bandit and rebel bands, raiding and attacking small towns, which required the government to deploy troops. However, the lack of revenue and loss of fortune to bandits meant that troops were not paid their wages in time or even at all, leading to them disbanding or even joining the rebels and further compounding the problem.<ref name=":024" />

Throughout the Manchu conquests, a man emerged as a leader: Li Zicheng (李自成). Originally the leader of an independent army in north Shaanxi, he was positioned to attack the capital at Beijing in 1644, entering it in April of that year and occupying it for himself. As the story goes, on the morning that Li's army took Beijing, the emperor Zhu Youjian woke up as usual only to find all his advisors and courtiers had fled, without anyone telling him about the invaders. The emperor then took a piece of silk and walked out of the palace (which was highly unusual for emperors to do) up to a hill surrounding the city. There, he pricked his finger and wrote on the silk 'Son of Heaven' (天子), his official title. He then hanged himself from a tree on the hillside, and thus brought the rule of the Ming to an end.<ref name=":0242">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 25: The Rise of the Manchus|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

With Li Zicheng in control of the capital, officials and princes from imperial families fled to Nanjing, the secondary capital of the dynasty. They held there for a while and even proclaimed a successor, none of which saved the Ming. Li Zicheng proclaimed a dynasty of his own as well in Beijing, with himself as the new emperor. He began the process of establishing his rule shortly afterwards: calling officials to introduce themselves at his court, and creating a new government with them. This dynasty was short-lived, however, as the Manchus were still active and so were Ming loyalists. The Manchus had been stopped beyond the Great Wall at its eastern end, and could not get past a Ming fortress no matter their attempts.<ref name=":0242" />

When Li Zicheng captured Beijing however, the general of the fortress, Wu Sangui (吳三桂) found himself in a difficult position: he was still a Chinese general charged with protecting the empire, but his dynasty did not really exist anymore. His mistress was also in Beijing, and he was worried she might be recruited into the new emperor's harem. He thus negotiated with the Manchus: he would allow them to bring their army inside through the Great Wall, and both their army and the fortress' garrison would go down to Beijing to drive out the rebels and restore the Ming dynasty.<ref name=":0243">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 25: The Rise of the Manchus|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

The Manchus agreed, and the gates of the fortress were opened. The two then went west to Beijing and destroyed Li's nascent dynasty. Unsurprisingly, the Manchus then announced they would not restore the Ming dynasty but put their Qing dynasty in place. Having achieved his real objective—securing his mistress—and understanding the reality of the Manchu conquest, Wu did not object to this turn of events and later became a general under the Qing.<ref name=":0243" />

While seizing the capital was a very important step to establish the Qing, there was of course a lot left to do. The Manchus then had to establish their rule over the rest of the empire and have it recognized. Military campaigns continued for the next two years, and as in previous such conquests, the greatest resistance came from the Jiangnan area, in Southern China, which was the wealthiest region in China and thus also the one most producing literate and academic scholars. At the city of Yangzhou, the Manchus met fierce resistance—much stronger than they anticipated. After they took the city, they enacted upon the city ten days of looting and killing, essentially killing any Chinese they found within the city. This, the Manchus hoped, would send a message against further resistance. On the contrary, it strengthened the national identity and those who resisted at Yangzhou were considered to be brave heroes who preferred to choose death over surrender. The story of Yangzhou would play a motif at the end of the Qing dynasty centuries later as an appeal to Chinese patriotism and nationalism.<ref name=":0243" />

By the end of the 1640s, most of the resistance against the Manchus had been extinguished. Some loyalist elements did hold out against the Manchus, notably on the island of Taiwan. At the time, the island was part of Fujian province and in a peculiar position: while it was part of the empire, it had become a focal point for activity by Europeans (specifically the Portuguese and the Dutch). Ming loyalists crossed the strait and settled in Taiwan, but never really made an attempt to retake the empire. It was only by the 1680s that the loyalists in Taiwan were suppressed.<ref name=":0243" />

In 1660, the last emperor of the Ming (who was in exile in what is now Myanmar, when the royal family fled the Manchu) was returned to China and executed, effectively putting an end to the Ming dynasty. The Qing empire could then properly begin, and would ultimately be the last of China's dynasty.<ref name=":0243" />

=== High Qing era ===
In 1661, the first emperor of the Qing died and was succeeded by one of his sons, the Kangxi emperor (康熙, ''Kāngxī'' '','' personal name Xuanye), which began a series of long reigns: over the next 135 years, only three emperors would reign over the Qing. Historically, these three emperors represent the greatest achievements of not only the Qing dynasty, but of all of Chinese civilization up to that point as their rules were also met with great advances in literature, culture, peace, prosperity and stability.<ref name=":025">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 26: Kangxi to Qianlong|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

Xuanye came to the throne at the age of 8. He was not the oldest son of the emperor, but he had survived smallpox which was taken as a sign of his good health. For the first five or six years, he was guided in his rule by a council of regents, called the Oboi regency after his uncle, who headed the regency. In 1667, when Xuanye was a teen, he took it upon himself to stop his regency and his uncle was relieved of his duties.<ref name=":025" />

Xuanye's ascension to the throne coincided with a time where things were stabilizing in the Qing. Still, In the 1670s, Xuanye faced the most serious challenge to the Qing dynasty—both up until that point in the dynasty's history and until the middle of the 19th century. Wu Sangui, the general at the fortress that let the Manchus in years prior, was not content with the new emperor. He had been rewarded for his cooperation by being granted very large territory as a feudal domain, but in the 1670s, the Qing wanted to seize these territories (as well as those they had granted to other defecting generals), perhaps in preparation before the holders of this land died and passed it down to their sons.<ref name=":025" />

==== Southwestern rebellion ====
This triggered a rebellion in the Southwest of China, with Wu Sangui as its leader, known as ''the revolt of the three feudatories'' (三藩之亂, ''Sānfān zhī luàn'') due to the three generals that rose up. More military forces in South and Southwest China joined in with the rebellion, but certainly not all of them, and not outside of this region. It took the Qing dynasty 8 years to take down the rebellion, suppressing it by the 1680s. Their success was made possible due to the loyalty the vast majority of the Chinese army displayed towards this new dynasty: this was a very significant development as it showed that the Qing state was not perceived as an "alien", non-Chinese body (such as the Jin or Yuan were).<ref name=":0252">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 26: Kangxi to Qianlong|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

The Manchus had achieved this loyalty largely because after the initial conquest of the Ming, they had established conditions of peace within the empire and had allowed, for the most part, let the Chinese return to their livelihood. They did, however, impose heavy taxation on the Jangnan area and had established the traditional Manchu ''queue'' hairstyle as the only allowed hairstyle for Han men, which became associated with Chinese identity in a generation or two. The penalty for not wearing the hair was execution for trahison.<ref name=":0252" />

==== Expansion ====
Once the rebellion had been quelled, the emperor turned his attention to trying to win control over all of the Mongol tribes. This would be a difficult undertaking: Mongol tribes were scattered over a wide geographical area. The Eastern Mongols, with whom the Jurchen had made partnerships, for located close to China, but the Western Mongols did not share this partnership and had fled to escape the turmoil in China, going as far as Southern Russia. The Qing empire soon became a multi-ethnic state: the bringing together of the Manchus, the Han Chinese, the Mongols, Tibetans and the Central Asian populations in far Xinjiang was pursued by Xuanye and his successors.<ref name=":0253">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 26: Kangxi to Qianlong|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

Xuanye, however, was not succesful in defeating or luring the Western Mongols to China. However, he did start the process which was carried on by his successors. He was also able to project Qing power into new geographic areas—notably in the province of [[Xinjiang]]. Another concern of his was his efforts to stabilize the fiscal bases for his dynasty. In 1712, the Qing state undertook a survey of the empire, much like the Ming had done under Zhang Juzheng. This survey updated tax rates, but came with a new condition: the rates fixed by this survey would remain in perpetuity, meaning that a piece of land, once its value and tax had been set by this survey, would never see it change. This was known as the Tax Edict of 1712 and led to major problems later for the Qing.<ref name=":0253" />

==== Yongzheng reforms ====
in 1722, Xuanye died after a reign of over 60 years, and was succeeded by one of his sons who adopted the name of the Yongzheng (雍正) emperor (personal name Yinzhen). The circumstances of his succession are a little unusual. Even at the time, some historians questioned his legitimacy: Yinzhen was the 13th son of the emperor, so quite far removed from the line of succession. Yet, he was named in an edict which was purportedly written by his father, the emperor, on his deathbed. This edict, however, was believed by most Chinese to have been forged. The conduct of the young emperor after coming to power also created a certain amount of suspicion: he had bad relations with most of his other brothers, and had most of them either imprisoned, exiled or executed.<ref name=":0254">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 26: Kangxi to Qianlong|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

Nonetheless, he turned out to be an effective emperor. Despite his shorter reign (from 1722 to 1735), he devoted these years to improving the administration of the empire and was more benevolent than his father. Unsurprisingly, the tax edict of 1712 was starting to create problems for the Qing: the flow of income to the imperial treasury was lower than the emperor thought it should be and there were indeed problems with the collection system and its subsequent repatriation to the capital. Taxes would be collected on the local level, forwarded to the provincial, consolidated there and then sent to the capital. Then, the imperial treasury would return funding to the provincial level which would return it to the local villages and cities. With so many steps, losses of silver due to corruption and other problems happened very often. Particularly, because the taxes were paid in silver, the metal would be melted down by the government and then remolded into bars for easier transport. Fees and other surcharges happened during this process, essentially making the collection of taxes variable every time. These charges would also normally not be recorded, which allowed for corruption.<ref name=":0255">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 26: Kangxi to Qianlong|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

Yinzhen wanted to reform the tax collection system to improve the flow of income to the capital and reduce corruption, giving the imperial court greater control. He reformed the system so that not only collection and transfer would be properly recorded, but localities would be allowed to keep a portion of the taxes they paid for themselves to be used as their funding, instead of having the silver first go to the capital and then be sent back to the villages. This project was first tested in some provinces in Central China where it proved very successful. When attempting to expand this reform to the whole empire however, Yinzhen met a lot of resistance: the provinces in Central China were generally in a middle-ground in terms of economic and social revenue. This system, however, did not please the local nobles in the coastal areas, which were generally richer, as they wanted to keep control over the flow of silver with which they could enrich themselves.<ref name=":0255" />

The emperor eventually became frustrated with this system and abandoned it in the early 1730s, thereby informally accepting the conditions led by the coastal nobles. <ref name=":0255" />

Other reforms were also attempted. Notably, he finished the establishment of the Grand Council which had been started by his father. A continuation of the Grand Secretariat under the Ming, the Council supplanted the Secretariat. The Grand Council was almost entirely a deliberative and consultative body, meant to be debating policy, which did make it the most critical decision-making institution in China as the emperor was the one who promulgated law. The Grand Secretariat, which took up this consultative function under the Ming (on top of their existing administrative function), was thus relegated back to being an administrative institution. The Grand Council did not have fixed membership, with members being appointed by the emperor.<ref name=":0256">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 26: Kangxi to Qianlong|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref> Yinzhen also undertook reforms for the well-being of his subjects and regularized the status of certain outcast social groups.<ref name=":0257">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 26: Kangxi to Qianlong|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

=== Reign of Qianlong ===
Yinzhen died after only 13 years on the throne, and was succeeded by one of his sons who chose the name of the Qianlong (乾隆) emperor (personal name Hongli), reigning from 1735 until 1795. He actually lived until 1798, but abdicated so that he would not reign longer than his grandfather, the Kangxi emperor.<ref name=":0258">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 26: Kangxi to Qianlong|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>
His reign is viewed by many historians as the high-tide of the Qing dynasty. His 60 years of rule were a period where the early achievements of the Qing dynasty came to fruition, and Hongli built on efforts his predecessors had started. He was a very hands-on and pragmatic administrators, paying close attention to the details of many going-ons of the empire.<ref name=":0258" />

Population continued to grow in China, reaching about 400 million by the end of his reign. China attained its greatest prosperity in history during this time, making it probably the richest country in the world at the time. Notably, many Chinese goods such as tea, porcelain, silk, etc. flowed all around the planet in the global market. At its height, China was responsible for 25% of global economic production.<ref name=":0258" />

Nonetheless, it was not a completely peaceful time. Hongli pursued military campaigns as well, and was able to complete the process of bringing all of the Mongol tribes into the empire by the 1770s. He pursued a very careful policy of dealing with defeated enemies: he would give them official titles and great wealth, as he was interested in expanding the empire and strengthening it, by making his subjects loyal.<ref name=":0258" />

He also deepened the relationship between the Qing empire and Tibet. Tibet had been closely linked to the Mongols, and was embedded into the Qing empire at its establishment through that link. Hongli continued the policies of maintaining a strong Chinese presence in Tibet.<ref name=":0258" />
[[File:Map_of_qing_vs_prc.jpg|thumb|Map of Qing borders at their height (in red) overlaid by a map of modern-day China (the People's Republic)]]
It was under Hongli that China reached its peak in terms of territorial area: indeed, the borders of modern-day China (the People's Republic) were built under the Qing and are in fact slightly smaller than they were under the Qing, who controlled Mongolia and parts of what is now India, Nepal and Russia.<ref name=":0258" />

By the end of Hongli's reign, new problems emerged—many of which as a result of the long period of success the dynasty had. The growth of China's population, for example, could hardly be sustained by the amount of land that the empire possessed, who had no more land to expand (conquer) into. The economy started stagnating and plateaued, as it reached a point at which it was limited by the current technology and means of production that existed. At the same time, [[capitalism]] began to emerge in the West, specifically in England, and led to new kinds of conflicts that eventually reached China.<ref name=":0258" />

=== Early Western influence ===
The Dutch eventually came to focus their economic activity on the islands of Southeast Asia (modern-day [[Indonesia]]) and in [[Japan]], gaining a place as the only—Europeans—foreigners who could still trade with Japan after the closing down of their borders. The Spanish established themselves in the Philippines, and Manila became a lucrative center of trade for them after they conquered it in 1571, through which they sold Mexican silver to China.<ref name=":026">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 27: The Coming of the West|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

The Portuguese, who had been the first to establish a presence in Southeast Asia, maintained some role there: they had trading posts on the West coast of [[India]], and established the enclave at [[Macao Special Administrative Region|Macao]] in 1557, which remained in their hands until 1999, but they devoted most of their attention to Africa and Brazil and did not become as significant as other European powers in East Asia. Meanwhile, the British became involved in India.<ref name=":026" />

While all were interested in China and saw it as the "greatest prize of all", being a tremendous market and the source of high-quality manufactured goods, they had difficulties getting access to it. At the end of the 18th century, both China and Europe were moving through a period of great change. The first big change in Europe was of course the [[Industrial Revolution]], which took place in Britain first and led to new conditions for the production of commodities. The circumstances that led to the industrial revolution were also present in China, especially in the Jiangnan area and in parts of India (the [[Bengal]] region). Nonetheless, while there is a wide debate over how the industrial revolution took place in Britain, the fact remains that it was the first country to go through with it.<ref name=":026" />

From about the middle of the 18th century, China had regulated its trade with European powers through the Canton system (一口通商, ''Yīkǒu tōngshāng''). Under this system, trade could only take place in one port, the port of Canton (now more accurately called Guangzhou) in the far South of China, past Hong Kong and Schenzen and requiring boats to sail into the mouth of a river called the Schizi Yang (狮子洋). Moreover, that trade had to be conducted through licensed Chinese agents, the hong merchants, who served as brokers between European and Chinese merchants.<ref name=":027">{{Citation|author=Dr. Ken Hammond|year=2004|title=From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese history|chapter=Lecture 28: Threats from Within and Without|publisher=The Teaching Company}}</ref>

This trade did function and was in fact quite lively, but it was a trade in which European merchants brought silver to China with which they bought Chinese commodities. This regulated system was quite satisfactory for the Chinese as they made good money and had a lot of outlets for their manufactured goods, but wasn't as interesting to the European merchants as even if they did acquire goods they could sell back in their homeland, they realized there was still a lot of untapped potential in dealing with China if only they could sell the Chinese a commodity which China would pay silver for, thus reversing the flow of trade and balancing the flow a little better.<ref name=":027" />

In 1792, and then again in 1816 (before and after the [[Napoleonic Wars]]), the British sent diplomatic missions to China to try and establish commercial relations between the two countries. In both instances, these missions were received very politely but were told that the Chinese were simply not interested in their "shoddy goods" (as emperor Qianlong said to King George III in a letter).<ref name=":027" />

This was considered unacceptable to the British, who still required some commodity to sell to China if they were to open up trade relations. In 1816, they settled on opium. Opium was already familiar to China, produced in very small quantities in the far Southwest mostly as medicine. Its non-medicinal use had also been known and recognized for a long time, and had been regulated since the 1730s. What the British found was that as they colonized more of India, they opened up a very suitable environment to produce opium. They set off to aggressively destroy the local cotton industry so as to eliminate competition and turn it to opium production.<ref name=":027" />

They then discovered they could market opium to the poorest classes of society in Southeast Asia and South China, and thus began to ship opium in ever-increasing volumes from Bengal through Southeast Asia and into the Guangzhou port where it was then offloaded into the domestic economy. Between 1816 and 1830, the volume of opium shipped to China increased every year without fail. The impacts were dramatic: millions of Chinese became addicted to opium. It became a tremedous social problem: people were not productive, crime rose, and on an economic level, the British were demanding payment for opium in silver. This had the very rapid effect of reversing the flow of silver ''out'' of China, leading to economic disruptions throughout the empire and causing ripple effects.<ref name=":027" />

By the 1830s, there were shortages of capital for investment and prices were subject to dramatic fluctuations. At this time, this state of matter was starting to be taken very seriously by the Chinese government. The Qing State, however, was having problems dealing with these issues. The government had become increasingly unresponsive: conflicts, policy and debate within the Qing leadership had bogged down efforts to deal with problems, and were particularly frustrating because the bureaucratic mentality of "doing things the way they had always been done" was quite strong, but ultimately ineffective against such an unprecedented problem. Revenues were declining; the outflow of silver meant that taxes were not collected as extensively, and the capacity of government to maintain its normal functions (such as the infrastructure of the grand canal) began to diminish.<ref name=":027" />

==== Opium trade ====
The British began trafficking opium into China in the 18th century to reverse the flow of silver. In 1729, the [[Yongzheng|emperor]] banned opium imports, which were then about 14 tons per year. However, the trade continued and reached 320 tons per year by 1799.<ref name=":0" />

The USA joined the opium trade in 1784,<ref name=":0" /> and [[United States of America|U.S.]] [[Bourgeoisie|capitalists]] created a factory in Guangzhou in 1801.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|chapter=Going Global|page=176|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520972070|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05}}</ref> Annual opium imports reached 2,800 tons per year in 1838, costing China 4,000 tons of silver each year.<ref name=":0" />

Of course, the Chinese realized that the opium trade was at the heart of all these problems, both in its social and economic impacts. The Qing government repeatedly protested to British merchants and the king about the problem they had caused and its effects, and the emperor then called for a debate among his officials about how to deal with the influx of opium. Lin Zexu (林则徐, ''Lín Zéxú''), the general governor of Huguang, made a proposal. He had served in Central Asia, dealing with the security problems there, and had distinguished himself as an official who was able to be flexible and creative in dealing with problems. His proposal to the emperor was a two-track approach: on the one hand, he advocated for rehibilitation programs to opium addicts to redress the epidemic. On the other, he urged strict prohibition in the sale of opium. This was already the existing law of China, but Lin Zexu wanted to enforce it stringently. By attacking the supply and demand of opium, he hoped that this would eliminate the problem.<ref name=":027" />

The emperor was very impressed by the proposal and eventually, in 1838, Lin Zexu was tasked with becoming the Imperial Commissioner charged with eradicating the opium trade in Guanzhou. Lin travelled south from the capital to Guanzhou and, in 1839, launched a serious campaign directed at stopping the flow of opium into China. He took a very direct approach to the matter: in Guangzhou, the foreign traders had warehouses where their goods were brought ashore and stored before they were shipped off in the interior. Lin Zexu, in the spring of 1839, ordered that opium in these warehouses be confiscated: accordingly, a large quantity of opium was seized. He then had a large trench dug in the ground, the opium dumped into it, and lime spread over it and set aflame.<ref name=":027" />

When the Chinese destroyed the opium supplies, the British merchants were of course quite upset and demanded that reparations be made. The British military representatives assured that they would be compensated by the crown, but Lin Zexu proved to be intent on keeping the trade shut down, and so the British—who thought that this was perhaps a one-time demonstration—were quite upset when they realized Lin Zexu had no intention of allowing the trade to resume. After a second round of destroying opium, the British decided they had to take action.<ref name=":027" />

There was a long debate in Parliament over what to do over China—not over the opium trade specifically (as the British did not want to present themselves as a drug cartel), but over the free market. When war was declared and the British fleet was sent out to China, it was done not on the basis of making the world safe for drug dealers, but on the basis of promoting free trade.<ref name=":027" />

=== Century of Humiliation ===

==== First Opium War ====
{{Main article|First Opium War}}
The British Empire attacked China in 1839 to open it to British drug traffickers, beginning the [[First Opium War]]. The British Empire sold opium to China throughout the 19th century even thought it was banned in Britain. The UK, France, [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russia]], and the United States and the [[Second Opium War]] against China from 1856 to 1860.<ref name=":02222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=Imperialism and War|page=172–173|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref> By 1890, 10% of the Chinese population was addicted to opium,<ref>{{Web citation|author=Felix Abt|newspaper=[[CovertAction Magazine]]|title=Shameless Hypocrisy: West Shows Solidarity with Chinese Protesters While it Conceals its Own Earlier Massive Atrocities Against China|date=2022-12-30|url=https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/12/30/shameless-hypocrisy-west-shows-solidarity-with-chinese-protesters-while-it-conceals-its-own-earlier-massive-atrocities-against-china/|retrieved=2023-01-02}}</ref> including 25% of adult males.<ref name=":02222" /> The technologically backward Qing army was no match for the British, the Qing Dynasty was defeated in both wars and forced to sign unequal treaties, including the cession of [[Hong Kong Special Administrative Region|Hong Kong]] to Britain.

==== Taiping Rebellion ====
The [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Mysticism|mystic]] [[Hong Xiuchuan]] started the Taiping Rebellion in 1850 in an attempt to create a Heavenly Kingdom which would resemble [[utopian socialism]]. The rebellion had large popular support despite its [[Corruption|corrupt]] leadership, and it took an intervention of foreign imperialists to put it down. 20 to 30 million people died in the rebellion, making it the bloodiest conflict in world history before [[Second World War|World War II]].<ref name=":02222" />

==== Second Opium War ====
In 1860 October, the British and French attacked Beijing. The British destroyed the Summer Palace and stole 1.5 million relics, many of which are still in Western museums. Britain and France forced China to legalize opium imports and [[Christianity|Christian]] missionary work and to prevent Europeans from being tried in Chinese courts. By 1880, the British were annually sending 10,700 tons of opium to China from [[British Raj (1858–1947)|India]]. The opium trade made up almost 15% of British tax revenue.<ref name=":0" />

==== Boxer Rebellion ====
In 1899, the [[Society of the Righteous Harmonious Fists]] began a rebellion against foreign imperialism with the support of the Qing government and Empress Dowager [[Cixi]]. 19,000 imperialists from Britain, France, [[German Empire (1871–1918)|Germany]], Russia, [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Italy]], and Japan invaded China in August 1900 to put down the rebellion.<ref name=":02222" /> The USA proposed the [[Open Door Policy]] to make the imperialist powers collaborate instead of dividing China into separate colonial territories.

After the defeat of the rebellion in rebellion, the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] created patrols in Hong Kong, [[Shanghai]], and Hankou and a garrison in Tianjin.<ref name=":022">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|chapter=The Military Opens Doors|page=205–8|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520972070|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:History of China]]

British East India Company

2025-08-12T19:06:04Z

70.115.131.7: Created page with "{{Infobox company|name=East India Company|founding_date=1600|defunct=1874}} '''The British East India Company''' (1600–1874) was a chartered joint-stock corporation that functioned as both a commercial monopoly and a colonial apparatus of the English, and later British, ruling class. Established under royal charter by Elizabeth I,<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=H. V. Bowen|year=2005|title=The Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756–183..."

{{Infobox company|name=East India Company|founding_date=1600|defunct=1874}}

'''The British East India Company''' (1600–1874) was a chartered joint-stock corporation that functioned as both a commercial monopoly and a colonial apparatus of the English, and later British, ruling class. Established under royal charter by Elizabeth I,<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=H. V. Bowen|year=2005|title=The Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756–1833|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780511495724}}</ref> it was granted exclusive rights to trade in the East Indies and gradually expanded its operations from commerce to outright territorial control.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Tirthankar Roy|year=2012|title=The East India Company: The World's Most Powerful Corporation|publisher=2012}}</ref> Through a combination of military conquest, political manipulation, and the co-optation of local elites, the Company transformed vast areas of South Asia into profit-generating colonies for the British bourgeoisie. Its economic activity was rooted in the extraction of surplus value from Indian peasants, artisans, and laborers through monopolization of trade, land revenue exploitation, and forced restructuring of local economies to serve British industrial needs. Functioning as a private state with its own army and bureaucracy, the Company played a central role in dismantling pre-colonial economies, intensifying famines, and laying the foundations for the direct colonial rule of the [[British Raj (1858–1947)|British Raj]] after 1858.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|author=K. N. Chaudhuri|year=1978|title=The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780511563263}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Om Prakash|year=1998|title=European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781139053358}}</ref> A similar company known as the Dutch East India company settled parts of India but mainly focused on Indonesia.<ref name=":2" />
==Economics==
The British East India Company’s economic role was inseparable from the rise of British imperialism and the early phase of global capitalism. While nominally a commercial trading corporation, the Company developed into a militarized apparatus for the extraction of surplus value from South Asia, redirecting wealth from the colonies to the British ruling class.<ref name=":0" /> At its core, the Company operated on a system of monopoly capitalism granted by royal charter, giving it exclusive rights to trade in specified regions. This allowed it to eliminate indigenous merchant competition and impose terms of exchange favorable only to Britain. Manufactured goods from Britain—produced under the wage-labor system of industrial capitalism—were dumped into Indian markets, displacing local craftspeople. In turn, Indian raw materials such as cotton, indigo, silk, saltpeter, and opium were purchased at artificially depressed prices and exported to feed Britain’s industrial expansion and global trade networks. Following the 1765 Treaty of Allahabad, which gave the Company diwani rights to collect revenue in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, the Company fused mercantile and territorial exploitation. The zamindari revenue system was weaponized to force peasants into cash-crop production for export rather than subsistence farming. This restructuring of agriculture destroyed food security, leading to recurrent famines such as the Bengal Famine of 1770, in which millions died while Company warehouses exported grain abroad. The Company’s opium trade exemplified its role in imperialist commodity circuits. Opium grown in India was sold in China, creating a flow of silver back to Britain, even as the resulting addiction crisis was enforced by military power in the Opium Wars. This triangular trade integrated India into a global capitalist system where value was siphoned from colonized labor and funneled into British capital accumulation. The fiscal regime of the Company prioritized extraction over reinvestment. Revenue collected from India financed the Company’s private army, administrative costs, and shareholder dividends in London. Little was returned to local economies beyond the infrastructure needed to maintain extraction—roads for troop movements, ports for exports, and bureaucratic offices for tax collection. The East India Company thus functioned as a prototype of the imperialist corporation: combining military force, monopoly rights, and financial capital to reorganize colonial economies around the needs of the imperial center. Its operations in India represent one of the clearest examples of primitive accumulation as described by Marx, in which wealth was violently seized from pre-capitalist societies to fuel the growth of industrial capitalism in the metropole.<ref name=":1" />
==Political aspect==
{{Infobox country|name=Company Raj|capital=Calcutta|mode_of_production=Capitalism|government_type=Colonial State|date_start=1600|event_start=First Outposts|event2=Battle of Plassey|date_event2=1757|event3=Treaty of Allahabad|date_event3=1765|event4=Anglo-Mysore Wars|date_event4=1799|event5=Anglo-Maratha Wars begin|date_event5=1772|event6=Anglo-Maratha Wars end|date_event6=1818|event7=Anglo-Sikh Wars start|date_event7=1845|event8=Anglo-Sikh Wars end|date_event8=1849|event9=Sepoy Rebellion|date_event9=1857|event10=Direct British Control of India and the Goverment of India act|date_event10=1858|event_end=Establishment of the British Raj|date_end=1858|p1=[[Mughal Empire]]|s1=[[British Raj]]|p2=[[Maratha empire]]|p3=[[Sikh empire]]|p4=Dutch India|p5=[[Austrian Empire]]|p6=[[Qing Dynasty]]|flag_s1=British Raj ensign.svg|s2=[[British Celyon]] (however this did spend a short time as part of the British Raj)}}
By the mid-18th century, the British East India Company had transitioned from a commercial enterprise into a de facto colonial state, ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent directly and indirectly. This period, often referred to as the '''Company Raj''' (1757–1858), combined military conquest, political manipulation, and administrative restructuring to bring diverse regions under British capitalist control. The political framework of Company Raj was designed to maintain imperial dominance while minimizing administrative costs. The Company divided its territories into Presidencies—the Bengal Presidency (headquartered in Calcutta), the Madras Presidency (Madras/Chennai), and the Bombay Presidency (Bombay/Mumbai)—each governed by a British-appointed Governor under the oversight of the Governor-General. These presidencies became the primary organs for enforcing British law, collecting revenue, and facilitating the export-oriented economy. The presidencies were further subdivided into provinces, districts, and subdistricts, with a chain of British and Indian officials tasked with ensuring tax extraction and social control. Beyond directly administered territories, the Company maintained a subsidiary alliance system and princely states under indirect rule. Local rulers, while retaining nominal authority, were bound by treaties obligating them to maintain British-approved armies, cede control over foreign relations, and pay tribute or accept Company military “protection.” This system fragmented pre-existing political unity, ensuring that regional rulers acted as agents of British imperial interests rather than as independent sovereigns.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

== Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 ==
The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857—known in colonial narratives as the “Indian Mutiny” and in Indian nationalist history as the First War of Independence—was the largest anti-colonial uprising against the British East India Company. Rooted in decades of exploitation, racial discrimination, and the destruction of local economies, the revolt was sparked by the grievances of Indian soldiers (''sepoys'') in the Company’s army. Immediate triggers included the introduction of rifle cartridges allegedly greased with cow and pig fat—offensive to both Hindu and Muslim religious practices—and the increasing disregard for sepoy welfare. However, the rebellion’s causes were far deeper. The Company’s aggressive annexations, such as those enforced under the ''Doctrine of Lapse'', the imposition of ruinous land revenue systems, and the deliberate restructuring of agriculture for export crops had displaced millions of peasants and artisans. Many princely states, landowners, and dispossessed nobles saw the revolt as an opportunity to resist British encroachment. The uprising began in Meerut in May 1857 and quickly spread to Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi, and large swathes of northern and central India. It united disparate forces—sepoys, peasants, zamindars, urban artisans, and deposed rulers—in a broad, though uncoordinated, struggle against Company rule. The rebellion was met with brutal repression: mass executions, village burnings, and systematic atrocities designed to terrorize the population back into submission. By 1858, the revolt had been crushed, but its consequences were transformative. The British Crown formally dissolved the East India Company in terms of territorial holdings, bringing India under direct colonial rule as the British Raj. The administrative, military, and political structures forged in the Company Raj were retained, but with tighter imperial control and more overt racial segregation, ensuring that the exploitation of India’s people and resources continued under a new colonial regime. The actual company itself fully dissolved during the 1870's as per the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act 1873.<ref name=":1" />
==References==
[[Category:History of India]]

Sultanate of Delhi (1206–1526)

2025-08-12T18:36:28Z

70.115.131.7: Created page with "{{Infobox country|name=Delhi Sultanate|native_name=Salṭanat-i-Dihlī|capital=Delhi|mode_of_production=Feudalism|government_type=Monarchy|era=Medieval|date_start=1206|event_start=Founded|event1=Khalji Revolution|date_event1=1290|event2=Sack of Delhi|date_event2=1398|event3=Fall of the Sultanate|date_event3=1526|p1=Ghurid dynasty|s1=Mughal Empire|p2=Gahadavala dynasty|s2=Bengal Sultanate}} The '''Delhi Sultanate''' (1206–1526)<ref name=":0">{{Citation|..."

{{Infobox country|name=Delhi Sultanate|native_name=Salṭanat-i-Dihlī|capital=Delhi|mode_of_production=Feudalism|government_type=Monarchy|era=Medieval|date_start=1206|event_start=Founded|event1=Khalji Revolution|date_event1=1290|event2=Sack of Delhi|date_event2=1398|event3=Fall of the Sultanate|date_event3=1526|p1=[[Ghurid dynasty]]|s1=[[Mughal Empire]]|p2=[[Gahadavala dynasty]]|s2=[[Bengal Sultanate]]}}

The '''Delhi Sultanate''' (1206–1526)<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=Abraham Eraly|year=2014|title=Age Of Wrath: A History Of The Delhi Sultanate|publisher=Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd|isbn=9780143422266}}</ref> was a medieval state that consisted series of Turkic, Persian, and other Muslim-led dynasties that ruled large parts of the Indian subcontinent from Delhi as their political center. It emerged in the wake of the Ghurid conquests, establishing a centralized feudal state that integrated much of northern India into a broader network of the medieval Islamic world. While the Sultanate played a role in developing trade, architecture, and cultural exchange across Asia, it was also characterized by heavy taxation, military expansion, and the exploitation of peasant and artisan labor to enrich the ruling aristocracy. Its rule deepened the subcontinent’s feudal structures, maintained by a combination of military force, religious authority, and alliances with landed elites. The Delhi Sultanate’s history reflects both the material transformations of medieval [[Republic of India|India]]—such as the spread of irrigation, urban growth, and craft specialization—and the social contradictions of a state sustained by extraction and coercion, laying part of the groundwork for later Mughal consolidation.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Aniruddha Ray|year=2019|title=The Sultanate of Delhi (1206-1526) : polity, economy, society and culture|title-url=https://lux.collections.yale.edu/view/text/cd201b71-e282-4e69-b618-7deb68b53271|publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019}}</ref>
==Economic system==
The economy of the Delhi Sultanate was fundamentally feudal in character, with the bulk of surplus extracted from the peasantry through land revenue, forced labor, and tribute. Agriculture formed the backbone of production, with peasants cultivating wheat, rice, millet, sugarcane, cotton, and pulses. In many regions, the Sultanate expanded irrigation systems, dug canals, and promoted new crops, not out of altruism but to increase taxable yields for the state and landlords.<ref name=":1" />

The landholding system was dominated by the iqta arrangement, in which the Sultan granted revenue rights over a territory to military officers, nobles, and court officials in lieu of direct salary. These iqtadars did not own the land outright, but they extracted taxes from the peasants and were responsible for maintaining order and supplying troops when called upon. This system reinforced a parasitic ruling stratum whose wealth rested on peasant labor and whose loyalty to the Sultan was mediated through patronage networks.<ref name=":1" />
==History==
The Delhi Sultanate emerged in 1206 CE after the assassination of Muhammad of Ghor, whose conquests in northern India had shattered several Rajput and regional kingdoms. His former slave general, Qutb al-Din Aibak, seized Delhi and declared himself Sultan, inaugurating the Mamluk (Slave) Dynasty. Initially, the Sultanate’s power was confined to the Indo-Gangetic plain, but it rapidly expanded through military campaigns, subduing regional rulers and incorporating new territories into its tribute-based economy. Over the next three centuries, five successive dynasties ruled from Delhi: the Mamluks (1206–1290), Khiljis (1290–1320), Tughlaqs (1320–1414), Sayyids (1414–1451), and Lodis (1451–1526). Each dynasty relied on the iqta system to bind military elites to the Sultan, while maintaining a standing army for campaigns against both rival Indian kingdoms and Mongol invasions. By the 15th century, the Sultanate’s power was confined mainly to northern India. The Lodi Dynasty, of Afghan origin, attempted to restore centralized control, but faced growing disloyalty among nobles, Rajput resistance, and economic strain. In 1526, Babur, a Central Asian ruler descended from Timur and Genghis Khan, invaded with a well-trained army and advanced artillery. At the First Battle of Panipat, Babur decisively defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, ending the Delhi Sultanate and paving the way for the establishment of the Mughal Empire. While the Delhi Sultanate collapsed politically, many of its administrative systems, military structures, and cultural legacies were absorbed and reworked by the Mughals, ensuring that its influence persisted long after its formal demise.<ref name=":0" />

== References ==

[[:Category:History of India]]

Homo erectus

2025-08-11T22:01:19Z

70.115.131.7: Created page with "{{Infobox|Species=H.erectus|Genus=Homo|Family=Hominidae|Infraorder=Simiiformes|Order=Primate|Infraclass=Placentalia|Class=Mammalia|Unranked Clade=Synapsida|Series=Amniota|Superclass=Tetrapoda|Infraphylum=Gnathostomata|Subphylum=Vertebrata|Phylum=Chordata|Superphylum=Deuterostomia|Unranked clade 2=Bilateria|Kingdom=Animalia}} '''''Homo erectus''''' was a species of early human that lived during the Pleistocene epoch in Asia, Europe and Africa.<ref>{{Citation|author=Louis..."

Chola Empire (848–1279)

2025-08-11T21:36:01Z

70.115.131.7: Created page with "{{Infobox country|name=Chola Empire|capital=Thanjavur|mode_of_production=Feudalism, Primitive Socialism?|government_type=Monarchy|date_start=3rd century BCE|event_pre=Chola Dynasty started|date_pre=3rd century BCE|event_start=Chola Empire starts|date_event1=848|event_end=Collapse of the Chola Empire|date_end=1279|p1=Pandya dynasty (portion)|s1=Pandya dynasty|s2=Hoysala Kingdom|s3=Vijayanagara Empire}} '''Chola Empire''' (c. 9th century – 1279 CE) was a..."

{{Infobox country|name=Chola Empire|capital=Thanjavur|mode_of_production=Feudalism, Primitive Socialism?|government_type=Monarchy|date_start=3rd century BCE|event_pre=Chola Dynasty started|date_pre=3rd century BCE|event_start=Chola Empire starts|date_event1=848|event_end=Collapse of the Chola Empire|date_end=1279|p1=[[Pandya dynasty]] (portion)|s1=[[Pandya dynasty]]|s2=[[Hoysala Kingdom]]|s3=[[Vijayanagara Empire]]}}

'''Chola Empire''' (c. 9th century – 1279 CE) was a powerful South Indian polity that emerged as one of the most advanced states in pre-modern Asia. Originating in the fertile Kaveri River delta of present-day Tamil Nadu, the Cholas built their strength on agricultural surplus, craft production, and maritime trade. They developed a complex state apparatus marked by centralized monarchic rule, temple-based economic redistribution, and an advanced bureaucracy that integrated both hereditary and appointed officials. At its height under rulers such as Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I, the empire expanded across much of southern India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, projecting power through a sophisticated navy and extensive tributary networks. The Cholas patronized Tamil literature, monumental architecture, and bronze sculpture, while also facilitating the spread of Hinduism, Tamil culture, and Indian Ocean commerce. While often romanticized in nationalist and colonial historiography, the Chola Empire was not a “golden age” for all; its social order was structured around caste hierarchies, religious institutions, and systems of tribute that extracted surplus from peasants and laborers. Understanding the Chola period requires viewing it as part of the long history of class society in the Indian subcontinent, shaped by both local material conditions and integration into broader Indian Ocean trade systems.<ref>{{Citation|author=Burton Stein|year=1980|title=Peasant, state, and society in medieval South India|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

== References ==
[[Category:History of India]]

Mughal Empire (1526–1857)

2025-08-11T21:21:03Z

70.115.131.7:

{{Infobox country|name=Mughal Empire|native_name=امپراتوری گورکانی|capital=Delhi|mode_of_production=[[Feudalism]]|government_type=Monarchy|life_span=1526–1857|image_map=Mughal map.svg|map_width=260|map_caption=The Mughal Empire in 1700|official_languages=Persian|area_km2=4,000,000|population_estimate=158,400,000|population_estimate_year=1700|p1=[[Delhi Sultanate]]|s1=[[British East Indian Company]]|p2=[[Bengal Sultanate]]|p3=[[Bhoi dynasty]]|flag_s2=British Raj ensign.svg|s2=[[British Raj]]|s3=[[Emirate of Afghanistan]]|s4=[[Durrani Empire]]|s5=[[Maratha empire]]}}

The '''Mughal Empire''' was a state in [[South Asia]] during the early modern period.

== History ==

=== Formation ===
[[Babur]], a [[Islam|Muslim]], invaded [[India]] from the northwest using cannons and united most of the subcontinent between 1526 and 1529 to form the Mughal Empire. His conquests did not largely alter the [[Materialism|material conditions]] of Indian society.<ref name=":02222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=European Feudalism|page=89|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

=== Early colonialism ===
During the 17th century, several European countries established trading posts on the coast of India, and [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]] and [[Kingdom of France (987–1792)|France]] fought for control of the region in the 18th century.<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=The Age of Blood and Iron|page=150–152|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

=== British occupation ===
In 1757, [[Robert Clive]]'s British army of 3,000 defeated the Nawab of Bengal's army of 50,000 because many of the Bengali commanders refused to fight. A famine in 1769 killed roughly ten million Indians. Britain destroyed India's economy and de-developed the country, increasing the percentage of Indians dependent on [[agriculture]] from 50% to 75%.

Britain conquered Maharashtra in 1823, Sindh in 1843, Punjab in 1849, and Oudh in northern India in 1856. They kept native rulers in positions of authority, but the [[British East India Company|East India Company]] held all real political power.<ref name=":0222" />

=== Rebellion and beginning of British Raj ===
In 1857, sepoys (Indian soldiers in the British army) in north-central India rebelled against the British when they violated their religious customs. Rebels of different nationalities and religions united to install a new emperor and siege the garrisons of Kanpur and Lucknow. The British brutally crushed the rebellion using their own soldiers and sepoys from southern India. After the end of the rebellion, Queen [[Victoria Hanover]] became Empress of India, and the British government took over from the East India Company, establishing the [[British Raj (1858–1947)|British Raj]].<ref name=":0222" />

== References ==
[[Category:History of India]]

British Raj (1858–1947)

2025-08-11T21:15:31Z

70.115.131.7:

{{Infobox country|name=British Raj|native_name=برطانوی راج|image_flag=British Raj ensign.svg|capital=New Delhi|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]|government_type=Colonial occupation|date_start=1857|event_start=Indian Rebellion of 1857|event1=British Raj established by taking over the holdings of the British East India Company|date_event1=2 August 1858|event2=Movement of the capital city from Calcutta to New Delhi|date_event2=1911|event3=Jallianwala Bagh massacre|date_event3=April 13 1919|event4=Government of India Act 1935|date_event4=1935|event5=Seperation of [[Burma]] and [[Aden]]|date_event5=April 1 1937|event6=Last major famine ([[Bengal Famine]])|date_event6=1943|event_end= [[Partition of India]] into [[Pakistan]] and [[India]]|date_end=1947|p1=[[Mughal Empire]]|s1=[[India]]|p2=[[British East India Company]]|flag_p3=Qing flag.png|p3=[[Qing dynasty]] (portion)|p4=[[Johor Sultanate]]|flag_s1=Flag of India.svg|flag_s2=Flag of Pakistan.svg|s2=[[Pakistan]]|flag_s3=Myanmar flag.png|s3=[[Myanmar]]|flag_s4=Flag of sri lanka.png|s4=[[Sri Lanka]] (portion)|flag_s5=Flag of Somalia.svg|s5=[[Somalia]] (portion)|flag_s6=Flag of South Yemen.svg|s6=[[Yemen (Aden)]]|flag_s7=Flag of Bangladesh.svg.png|s7=[[Bangladesh]]|flag_s8=Flag of Malaysia.svg|s8=[[Malaysia]]|flag_s9=Flag of Singapore.svg|s9=[[Republic of Singapore]]|flag_type=Civil ensign|image_map=British India.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=English Urdu}}

The '''British Raj''' (sometimes called the '''Indian Empire''') was the period of direct [[British]] [[Colonialism|colonial]] rule on the Indian subcontinent. It succeeded the [[British East India Company]]'s rule of India during the late [[Mughal Empire (1526–1857)|Mughal Empire]]. During this period, India spent 25% and [[tax]] revenues on the military and barely 3% on health, education, and [[Agriculture|farming]] combined. British trade destroyed native Indian industries and undeveloped India's economy, increased the amount of Indians reliant on agriculture from 50% to 75%.<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=The Age of Blood and Iron|page=151–152|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref> After 200 years of British occupation, the Indian literacy rate was only 12%.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2017|title=Red Star over the Third World|chapter=Peasant Soviets|page=59–60|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacecu7gb2ei65us6ip3r2ugcgkblneqcftbm456mb6bzvprkbqk55qm?filename=Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20Red%20Star%20Over%20the%20Third%20World-LeftWord%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=New Delhi|publisher=LeftWord Books}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Formation ===
Following a rebellion of sepoys in 1857, the British government replaced the East India Company as the ruler of India and Queen [[Victoria Hanover]] became the Empress of India.<ref name=":0222" />

=== Geography and Division ===
The British Raj encompassed territories that today include India, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It also briefly included Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), however this was for an extremely short time. Additionally, the British Raj served as the administrative center for several other British colonies, such as Aden (in present-day Yemen) and the Straits Settlements, which covered parts of modern-day Malaysia and Singapore. For a short period, it also oversaw British Somaliland (now part of Somalia). Smaller colonies in Iran were also included. <ref>{{Citation|author=Subodh Kapoor|year=2002|title=Indian Encyclopaedia}}</ref>

While most of these were separated rather early on, however Burma and Aden were separated during the late 1930s in order for the British imperialists to weaken anti colonial and international movements amongst the people of India. International and cross cultural solidarity amongst the colonial subjects was harmed by the divide and rule strategy which ensured that Indians from various cultural and religious backgrounds could not collaborate to overthrow British rule (this is best seen the original partition of Bengal as well as the later partition of India itself). The British Empire also used Caste and a racialized system to create further divisions. This eventual lead to the partition of India which divided India by Hindu and Muslim populations into two separate countries. This lead to some of the worst colonial policies and was the largest migration of human beings since the original spreading out of our species.{{Citation needed}}

Another way India was controlled via geographical and population wise divisions by the imperialists was by using the Princely State system by which the bourgeoisie and royals of India could sell their citizens out in order to be an autonomous part of the British Raj which guaranteed them a higher standard of living. <ref>{{Citation|author=John McLeod|year=1994|title=The English Honours System in Princely India, 1925-1947|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25182886}}</ref>

=== Famines ===
Famines killed a million Indians in the 1860s, 3.5 million in the 1870s, and 10 million in the 1890s.<ref name=":0222" />

== Government ==
Following the end of company rule, the British strengthened their connections to native Indian rulers and relied on Brahmins to collect taxes and rents.<ref name=":0222" />

== Further reading ==

* [[Library:Inglorious Empire:What the British Did to India|''Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India'']]

== References ==
[[Category:History of India]]
[[Category:Colonialism]]
[[Category:Genocide]]

Subhas Chandra Bose

2025-08-11T20:41:02Z

70.115.131.7: Created page with "'''Subhas Chandra Bose''' was an Indian revolutionary and anti-colonial leader who sought to liberate India from British rule through armed struggle. He is best known for founding the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army)<ref>{{Citation|author=Sankar Ghose|year=1975|title=Political ideas and movements in India|isbn=University of Michigan Press}}</ref> and attempting to secure India’s independence by allying with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan d..."

'''Subhas Chandra Bose''' was an Indian revolutionary and anti-colonial leader who sought to liberate [[British Raj|India]] from British rule through armed struggle. He is best known for founding the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army)<ref>{{Citation|author=Sankar Ghose|year=1975|title=Political ideas and movements in India|isbn=University of Michigan Press}}</ref> and attempting to secure India’s independence by allying with [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Imperial Japan]] during the [[Second World War]]. Although he collaborated with the Axis powers, Bose also expressed admiration for the Soviet Union<ref>{{Citation|author=Bhagat Ram Talwar|year=1976|title=The Talwars of Pathan Land and Subhas Chandra's Great Escape|publisher=People's Publishing House}}</ref> and envisioned a hybrid political system combining elements of fascism and socialism—a position often described as National Bolshevism.</ref>{{Citation|author=Ravi Shanker|year=2017|title=There is No Such Thing As Hate Speech|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing}}</ref> In 1939, he founded the [[All India Forward Bloc]] as a breakaway faction of the Indian National Congress, presenting it as a socialist party with strong nationalist tendencies. This party still exists today. While a controversial figure due to his wartime alliances, Bose remains an influential and contested leader in the history of India’s independence movement.
==References==

New Caledonia

2025-08-10T21:43:56Z

70.115.131.7:

{{Infobox country|name=New Caledonia|native_name=Kanaky|image_flag=New Caledonian flag.svg|image_coat=Emblem of New Caledonia.svg.png|capital=Nouméa|largest_city=Nouméa|government_type=Devolved parliamentary dependency|leader_title1=High Commissioner|leader_name1=[[Louis Le Franc]]|leader_title2=President of the Government|leader_name2=[[Louis Mapou]]|image_map=New Caledonia map.png|map_width=320|official_languages=French|area_km2=18,576|population_census=271,407|population_census_year=2019}}
[[File:Kanaky map.png|thumb|Indigenous groups in New Caledonia]]
'''Kanaky''', officially known as '''New Caledonia''', is a [[French Republic|French]] [[Settler colonialism|settler-colony]] in the southwest [[Pacific Ocean]]. The [[Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front]] (FLNKS) has been struggling for [[national liberation]] and independence since the 1980s.<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|author=B. A. Ford|newspaper=[[People's Voice]]|title=Kanaky-New Caledonia independence vote shines light on imperialism in the Pacific|date=2020-10-19|url=https://pvonline.ca/2020/10/19/kanaky-new-caledonia-independence-vote-shines-light-on-imperialism-in-the-pacific/|retrieved=2022-12-22}}</ref>

== Terminology ==
New Caledonia is the [[Colonialism|colonial]] name of the islands and was chosen by [[James Cook]] in 1774 based on an old name for [[Scotland]].<ref name=":2" />

French settlers first used the word 'Kanak' as an insult. In 1969, Chief [[Nidoish Naisseline]] decided to adopt the term 'Kanak' to refer to his own people, leading the French to stop using that term and instead call the natives [[Melanesia|Melanesians]].<ref name=":4">{{Citation|author=Susanna Ounei|year=1985|title=For Kanak Independence|chapter=The Kanak people's struggle for independence in New Caledonia|page=3–4|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacean27lkjc3azb6uduikg7lvi3xsgcegdya7iok6oseor5tipypvfm?filename=Susanna%20Ounei%20-%20For%20Kanak%20independence_%20The%20fight%20against%20French%20rule%20in%20New%20Caledonia-Corso_%20Labour%20Publishing%20Co-operative%20Society%20Ltd.%20%281985%29.pdf|publisher=Labour Publishing Co-operative Society}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Pre-colonial ===
Before colonization, around 200,000 people lived in New Caledonia.<ref name=":4" />

James Cook became the first [[Europe|European]] to visit New Caledonia in 1774, naming the archipelago New Caledonia.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|author=V. Z. Klepikov|year=1979|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|title-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/New+Caledonia|chapter=New Caledonia|section=Historical Survey}}</ref>

=== French colonization ===
[[French Empire (1852–1870)|France]] took over New Caledonia as a [[Colonialism|colony]] in 1853 and forced the natives into small reservations with infertile land. The French killed thousands of natives when they rebelled,<ref name=":3">{{Citation|author=Susanna Ounei|year=1985|title=For Kanak Independence|chapter=Introduction|page=1–2|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacean27lkjc3azb6uduikg7lvi3xsgcegdya7iok6oseor5tipypvfm?filename=Susanna%20Ounei%20-%20For%20Kanak%20independence_%20The%20fight%20against%20French%20rule%20in%20New%20Caledonia-Corso_%20Labour%20Publishing%20Co-operative%20Society%20Ltd.%20%281985%29.pdf|publisher=Labour Publishing Co-operative Society}}</ref> reducing the population to only 26,000.<ref name=":4" />

The archipelago was a penal colony and many members of the [[Paris Commune]] were exiled to New Caledonia after 1871.<ref>{{Citation|author=Robert Aldrich, John Connell|year=2006|title=France's Overseas Frontier: Départements et territoires d'outre-mer|page=46|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521030366|title-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRB3woPa7LAC&pg=PA46}}</ref>

In 1878, Chief [[Ataï]] led a rebellion against the [[French Republic (1870–1940)|French]]. Many survivors were exiled to [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]] or [[Republic of Vanuatu|Vanuatu]].<ref name=":4" />

In 1917, Chief [[Noël]] organized against involvement in the [[First World War]]. The French beheaded him and took his head to a museum in Paris, where it remained until the 1980s at least.<ref name=":4" />

New Caledonia became a French Overseas Territory in 1946.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Peoples Dispatch]]|title=Progressive sections denounce outcome of New Caledonia referendum|date=2021-12-20|url=https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/12/20/progressive-sections-denounce-outcome-of-new-caledonia-referendum/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116220207/https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/12/20/progressive-sections-denounce-outcome-of-new-caledonia-referendum/|archive-date=2022-01-16|retrieved=2022-09-09}}</ref> Before then, settlers were allowed to kill any natives who entered settler towns after 9 p.m. without permission from the [[police]].<ref name=":4" />

=== Anti-colonial movement ===
Kanaks first won the right to vote in the 1950s and formed the [[Caledonian Union]] (UC), which demanded autonomy for New Caledonia. In 1977, it changed its goal to full independence. In 1979, the pro-independence forces of the [[Independence Front]] coalition won 83% of the Kanak vote and 35% of the total vote, including settlers.<ref name=":3" />

In 1984, French Minister of Overseas Territories [[Georges Lemoine]] rejected independence and prevented any independence referendum from being held until 1989. In response, the Kanaks dissolved the Independence Front and formed the FLNKS.<ref name=":3" />

==== 1984 provisional government ====
The FLNKS boycotted the 1984 elections and established a provisional government led by [[Jean-Marie Tjibaou]] on 1 December 1984. The French invaded with thousands of troops to crush the rebellion and murdered FLNKS leader [[Eloi Machoro]]. They killed at least 20 natives and took over 100 political prisoners.<ref name=":3" />

In 1998, the FLNKS signed an agreement with France to extend more rights to indigenous Kanak peoples.<ref name=":1" />

==== 2021 independence referendum ====
The FLNKS boycotted a 2021 referendum for independence from France. 96.5% of votes in the referendum were against independence, but only 43.87% of the population voted in the referendum.<ref name=":0" />

== Demographics ==
In 1985, the native Kanak population was just over 60,000, and there were 54,000 [[White people|white]] settlers, mostly from France. There were also 30,000 people from other countries, especially from the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.<ref name=":3" />

== Ecological Damage ==
New Caledonia is a rather ecologically diverse part of the world, with the dominant plants being Araucarian conifers. This makes New Caledonia very similar to the ecosystems of the Mesozoic.<ref>{{Citation|author=Tim Haines|year=1999|title=Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History|publisher=BBC Books|isbn=0-563-38449-2}}</ref> While the Kanak protected this unique envoirment, French Settlers often harm this ecosystem. French settlers have turned New Caledonia into a major nickel mine which has contributed to massive deforestation, pollution and contamination of habitats. None of this benefits the Kanak who do not get any of the benefits that Mainland France gains from selling New Caledonian nickel.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Borgen Magazine|title=Identity, Inequality, Colonization: Human Rights in New Caledonia|url=https://www.borgenmagazine.com/shape-human-rights-in-new-caledonia/}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Camille Pasquet, Pauline Le Monier, Fabrice Monna|year=2016|title=Impact of nickel mining in New Caledonia assessed by compositional data analysis of lichens|title-url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5125352/|pdf=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5125352/|publisher=Springer Plus|doi=10.1186/s40064-016-3681-4}}</ref>

== References ==
[[Category:Colonial outposts]]
<references />
[[Category:Settler-colonial states]]

British Raj (1858–1947)

2025-08-10T20:50:49Z

70.115.131.7:

{{Infobox country|name=British Raj|native_name=برطانوی راج|image_flag=British Raj ensign.svg|capital=New Delhi|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]|government_type=Colonial occupation|date_start=1857|event_start=Indian Rebellion of 1857|event1=British Raj established by taking over the holdings of the British East India Company|date_event1=2 August 1858|event2=Movement of the capital city from Calcutta to New Delhi|date_event2=1911|event3=Jallianwala Bagh massacre|date_event3=April 13 1919|event4=Government of India Act 1935|date_event4=1935|event5=Seperation of [[Burma]] and [[Aden]]|date_event5=April 1 1937|event6=Last major famine ([[Bengal Famine]])|date_event6=1943|event_end= [[Partition of India]] into [[Pakistan]] and [[India]]|date_end=1947|flag_type=Civil ensign|image_map=British India.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=English Urdu}}

The '''British Raj''' (sometimes called the '''Indian Empire''') was the period of direct [[British]] [[Colonialism|colonial]] rule on the Indian subcontinent. It succeeded the [[British East India Company]]'s rule of India during the late [[Mughal Empire (1526–1857)|Mughal Empire]]. During this period, India spent 25% and [[tax]] revenues on the military and barely 3% on health, education, and [[Agriculture|farming]] combined. British trade destroyed native Indian industries and undeveloped India's economy, increased the amount of Indians reliant on agriculture from 50% to 75%.<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=The Age of Blood and Iron|page=151–152|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref> After 200 years of British occupation, the Indian literacy rate was only 12%.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2017|title=Red Star over the Third World|chapter=Peasant Soviets|page=59–60|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacecu7gb2ei65us6ip3r2ugcgkblneqcftbm456mb6bzvprkbqk55qm?filename=Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20Red%20Star%20Over%20the%20Third%20World-LeftWord%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=New Delhi|publisher=LeftWord Books}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Formation ===
Following a rebellion of sepoys in 1857, the British government replaced the East India Company as the ruler of India and Queen [[Victoria Hanover]] became the Empress of India.<ref name=":0222" />

=== Geography and Division ===
The British Raj encompassed territories that today include India, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It also briefly included Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), however this was for an extremely short time. Additionally, the British Raj served as the administrative center for several other British colonies, such as Aden (in present-day Yemen) and the Straits Settlements, which covered parts of modern-day Malaysia and Singapore. For a short period, it also oversaw British Somaliland (now part of Somalia). Smaller colonies in Iran were also included. <ref>{{Citation|author=Subodh Kapoor|year=2002|title=Indian Encyclopaedia}}</ref>

While most of these were separated rather early on, however Burma and Aden were separated during the late 1930s in order for the British imperialists to weaken anti colonial and international movements amongst the people of India. International and cross cultural solidarity amongst the colonial subjects was harmed by the divide and rule strategy which ensured that Indians from various cultural and religious backgrounds could not collaborate to overthrow British rule (this is best seen the original partition of Bengal as well as the later partition of India itself). The British Empire also used Caste and a racialized system to create further divisions. This eventual lead to the partition of India which divided India by Hindu and Muslim populations into two separate countries. This lead to some of the worst colonial policies and was the largest migration of human beings since the original spreading out of our species.{{Citation needed}}

Another way India was controlled via geographical and population wise divisions by the imperialists was by using the Princely State system by which the bourgeoisie and royals of India could sell their citizens out in order to be an autonomous part of the British Raj which guaranteed them a higher standard of living. <ref>{{Citation|author=John McLeod|year=1994|title=The English Honours System in Princely India, 1925-1947|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25182886}}</ref>

=== Famines ===
Famines killed a million Indians in the 1860s, 3.5 million in the 1870s, and 10 million in the 1890s.<ref name=":0222" />

== Government ==
Following the end of company rule, the British strengthened their connections to native Indian rulers and relied on Brahmins to collect taxes and rents.<ref name=":0222" />

== Further reading ==

* [[Library:Inglorious Empire:What the British Did to India|''Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India'']]

== References ==
[[Category:History of India]]
[[Category:Colonialism]]
[[Category:Genocide]]

Partition of India

2025-08-10T20:31:33Z

70.115.131.7: Created page with "British India in 1937 The '''Partition of India''' in 1947 was a genocidal act carried out under the direction of the British imperialist government. It divided the British colony known as the British Raj into two separate states—India and Pakistan—along religious lines, creating a Hindu-majo..."

[[File:British India.svg|thumb|British India in 1937 ]]

The '''Partition of India''' in 1947 was a genocidal act carried out under the direction of the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|British]] imperialist government. It divided the British colony known as the [[British Raj (1858–1947)|British Raj]] into two separate states—[[Republic of India|India]] and [[Islamic Republic of Pakistan|Pakistan]]—along religious lines, creating a Hindu-majority India and a [[Islam|Muslim]]-majority Pakistan. Following the Second World War, Britain was economically exhausted and deeply in debt. It could no longer suppress the Indian working class with the same force as before. At the same time, the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China were exerting pressure on Britain and France to decolonize, further compelling the British ruling class to grant India formal independence. Under British colonial rule, the empire employed a divide-and-rule strategy to maintain control and undermine proletarian internationalism. Ethnic, caste, and religious divisions were deliberately inflamed to prevent unity among the oppressed masses. While both Muslim and Hindu workers and peasants had united at various times in the struggle for independence, the British were able to manipulate sectarian forces—particularly through the All-India Muslim League—to foster communal violence and derail the movement for a united, secular, socialist India. The final partition was executed with little regard for the human consequences. Borders were hastily drawn, splitting communities, farmlands, and trade networks. This fueled massive sectarian violence, displacement, and massacres.<ref>{{Citation|author=Nagaratna.B.Tamminal|year=2020|title=Division of India; Indian and Pakistan Independent
Dimensions – An overview|title-url=https://www.ijrar.org/papers/IJRAR19D1375.pdf}}</ref> An estimated 14–15 million people were forced to migrate (making it the largest migration of human beings in history), and hundreds of thousands—possibly over a million—were killed through massacres, starvation, disease, and exposure during the chaotic population transfers. Although the post-independence Indian state was officially secular, the divisions sown by British colonialism left deep scars. These divisions have contributed to the later rise of Hindutva chauvinism and ongoing communal tensions. The partition remains one of the most violent and destructive acts of decolonization in history, carried out to protect imperialist interests at the expense of the peoples of the subcontinent. <ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=Raman Kumar|year=2019|title=Lord Mountbatten's The Last Supper: How the British empire botched up the future of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh|title-url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31548929/}}</ref>

== Events ==
British colonialism in India had relied on a divide-and-rule strategy since the East India Company first established dominance in the 18th and 19th centuries. The British ruling class deliberately categorized and governed people by religion, caste, language, and ethnicity, encouraging rivalries that weakened anti-colonial unity. These policies were not incidental—they were an integral tool of imperial control designed to block proletarian internationalism and solidarity between workers and peasants of different backgrounds. The use of Princely States, semi autonomous regions of the British Raj led by British appointed Indian monarchs helped further divides. <ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Shashi Tharoor|year=2017|title=Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Inglorious_Empire:_What_the_British_Did_to_India|publisher=Aleph Book Company|isbn=978-1-84904-808-8}}</ref>

The Government of India Act of 1935 introduced provincial autonomy but preserved British control over defense, foreign affairs, and finance. It also expanded separate electorates for religious communities, deepening political separation between Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and others. In 1937, Britain escalated its strategy by separating [[Republic of the Union of Myanmar|Burma]] (Myanmar) from British India and making [[Republic of Yemen|Aden]] (in present-day Yemen) a Crown Colony independent from the Government of India. This was done to stifle any more internationalism amongst the Indian working class. <ref name=":1" />

During World War II, Britain’s exploitation of India reached unprecedented levels. India was dragged into the war without consultation of its people or leaders, serving as both a manpower reserve and an economic resource for the British war machine. Millions of Indian soldiers were deployed to fight on behalf of the empire, from North Africa to Southeast Asia, while resources were extracted from the subcontinent at the expense of local needs. The British tried to sell the war to the Indian populace by stating that they would pay for the war after it was over. The early war years saw significant cross-religious unity in anti-colonial activism. Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and other communities had collaborated in the past—most notably in the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation movements of the 1920s—but the war allowed the British to fracture these alliances. Anti-imperialist leaders who refused to support Britain’s war were jailed or politically sidelined, often on spurious charges of “sedition” or “treason.” <ref name=":1" />

The nationalist movement in the late colonial period was far from a monolith. Different factions and leaders pursued divergent strategies, ideologies, and alliances, often clashing with one another as much as they did with the colonial administration. At the left-leaning and militant end of the spectrum stood [[Subhas Chandra Bose]], who rejected the cautious, constitutionalist approach of the Indian National Congress under leaders like Gandhi and Nehru. Bose’s vision combined elements of socialism with a belief in strong centralized leadership and armed struggle. However in many cases Bose made statements that showcased [[National Bolshevism|National Bolshevik]] tendencies.<ref>{{Citation|author=Ravi Shanker|year=2017|title=There is No Such Thing As Hate Speech|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing}}</ref> He considered British rule too entrenched to be ended by nonviolent protest alone and instead sought to liberate India through military force. This conviction led him to form the Indian National Army (INA) with support from Axis powers, a controversial move that nonetheless won admiration from many Indians frustrated with the Congress’s perceived passivity. In sharp contrast, [[Mohandas Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]] remained committed to passive resistance and pushed the "Quit India" doctrine. [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] represented yet another tendency within the nationalist camp. Like Gandhi, he worked within the framework of the Congress, but his outlook was more openly socialist (however he would shift his stances to being more of a social democrat) and internationalist. Nehru saw independence not only as a political goal but as an opportunity to remake India as a modern, secular, and industrialized state. He sought to align the struggle for independence with global anti-imperialist movements, forging connections with the Soviet Union and other progressive forces abroad. The All-India Muslim League, under [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], charted a different course altogether. Initially a constitutionalist organization with limited mass appeal, the League gained momentum during World War II by positioning itself as the representative body of India’s Muslim population. While the Congress opposed participation in the British war effort without a guarantee of independence, the League cooperated with the colonial administration, using the opportunity to secure political concessions and promote the idea of a separate Muslim homeland. Jinnah argued that Muslims and Hindus were distinct political communities with irreconcilable differences, a position at odds with both the Congress’s secular nationalism and Bose’s vision of a united revolutionary struggle. Wartime neglect intensified exploitation of Indian labor and resources, culminating in the Bengal famine of 1943, in which an estimated 3 million died. <ref name=":1" />

By 1945, Britain emerged from the war economically harmed. The election of the Labour government under Clement Attlee in 1945 brought official promises of reluctant decolonization, but these were conditioned on protecting British geopolitical and economic interests. In 1946, elections to provincial assemblies showed a sharp communal split: the Congress Party dominated Hindu-majority provinces, while the Muslim League swept Muslim-majority areas. The Great Calcutta Killings of August 1946—sparked during the League’s “Direct Action Day”—resulted in thousands of deaths and marked a turning point in communal violence. Riots spread to Noakhali, Bihar, Punjab, and other regions. The deteriorating situation allowed the British to present Partition as the “only” solution to communal conflict—obscuring the fact that these divisions were a direct result of colonial policy. Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, pushed for a rapid transfer of power. The Mountbatten Plan,<ref name=":0" /> announced on June 3, 1947, set August 15 as the date for independence and Partition. Borders were drawn hastily by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who had never been to India before and had only five weeks to divide provinces, districts, and even villages. The Princely States also presented a challenge as King would have to decide which country they wanted to join. On August 14–15, 1947, British India was divided into the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan) and the Dominion of India (Later the Republic of India). Pakistan was carved out as two geographically separate territories—West Pakistan (modern Pakistan) and East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh)—while India retained the rest of British India’s territory. The Radcliffe Line cut through Punjab and Bengal, separating millions from their homes and livelihoods. Violence broke out almost immediately, with massacres, forced conversions, sexual violence, and mass displacement on both sides. An estimated 14–15 million people were uprooted, and between 800,000 and 2 million were killed. Trains full of refugees were attacked; entire villages were wiped out. The British withdrawal left no adequate plan for protecting civilians, reflecting the callousness of imperial priorities. In the following years, the legacy of Partition continued to destabilize the subcontinent. The first Indo-Pakistani war (1947–1948) was caused by the issue of what to do with the Princely State of Kashmir.<ref name=":1" /> This has lead to a bloody conflict that still continues. In the last 30 years alone the Kashmiri people have been under a lot of pressure due to ethnic violence instigated by the Indian government.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Andrew Connelly|newspaper=The New Humanitarian|title=Kashmir’s decade-high death toll a ‘warning sign’|date=2019|url=https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2019/06/11/kashmir-s-decade-high-death-toll-warning-sign?utm_source=chatgpt.com}}</ref> Further ethnic violence was seen in 1971 when the [[United States of America|US]] (which can confirmed via their own admission),<ref>{{Web citation|author=William Burr|newspaper=The National Security Archive|title=Nixon/Kissinger Saw India as "Soviet Stooge" in 1971 South Asia Crisis|date=2005|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20050629/}}</ref> UK and a very reluctant (and likely coerced) [[People's Republic of China|China]] helped Pakistan with its genocidal policies enacted in its exclave of East Pakistan. The massive influx of Bengali refugees into eastern India during the 1971 crisis compelled India and the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]]—to intervene militarily. This intervention culminated in the defeat of Pakistani forces in the east, leading to East Pakistan’s declaration of independence and the establishment of the modern state of [[People's Republic of Bangladesh|Bangladesh]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=pakdef.org|title=The Second Missile Attack|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224095638/http://pakdef.org/the-second-missile-attack/}}</ref>

== References ==

Bengal famine of 1943

2025-08-03T23:35:47Z

70.115.131.7: /* References */

The '''Bengal Famine of 1943''' was a man-made [[famine]] that occurred during [[Second World War|WW2]] in [[British Raj (1858–1947)|British India]] (mainly in the Bengal region which is today split between [[Republic of India|India]] and [[People's Republic of Bangladesh|Bangladesh]]). It was one of many famines that happened during the period of British rule over India. The famine is said to have killed 3 million people. The British Prime Minister at the time, [[Winston Churchill]], refused to help despite other imperial officials asking him for some minor aid. Winston Churchill later blamed the Indian people for the famine suggesting that they were "breeding like rabbits". The famine remains the last famine in Indian history, which showcases how little the British actually cared for imperial subjects.<ref>{{Citation|author=Paul R. Greenough|year=1982|title=Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal|title-url=https://www.amazon.com/Prosperity-Misery-Modern-Bengal-1943-1944/dp/0195030826|isbn=0195030826}}</ref>

== References ==
<references /><blockquote>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bengal famine of 1943}}
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:Imperialism]]

Bengal famine of 1943

2025-08-03T13:33:19Z

70.115.131.7: Created page with "The Bengal Famine of 1943 was a man made famine that occurred during WW2 in British India (mainly in the Bengal reigon which is today split between India and Bangladesh). It was one of many famines that happened during the British rule over India. The famine is said to have 3 million people. The British Prime Minister refused, Winston Churchill refused to help despite other imperial officials asking him for some minor aid. Winston Churchill..."

The Bengal Famine of 1943 was a man made famine that occurred during WW2 in [[British Raj (1858–1947)|British India]] (mainly in the Bengal reigon which is today split between India and Bangladesh). It was one of many famines that happened during the British rule over India. The famine is said to have 3 million people. The British Prime Minister refused, Winston Churchill refused to help despite other imperial officials asking him for some minor aid. Winston Churchill later blamed the Indian people for the famine suggesting that they were "breeding like rabbits". The famine remains the last famine to have occured in Indian history, which showcases how little the British actually cared for imperial subjects.<ref>{{Citation|author=Paul R. Greenough|year=1982|title=Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal|title-url=https://www.amazon.com/Prosperity-Misery-Modern-Bengal-1943-1944/dp/0195030826|isbn=0195030826}}</ref>

== References ==