This is my study guide for the ECE World Conflicts Since 1900 Excelsior College Examination (ECE). I have read over the beginning of the content guide and created 20 headings. These 20 headings include basically all the material that will be on the exam (or at least I hope).
My goal is to learn the material, have a decent understanding of world conflicts since 1900, and pass the exam, hopefully with a B or better. I have already read a number of books which go into varying depths on world conflicts, including America's Coming War with China, Peter Jennings' The Century, and A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union. However, I feel that my specific knowledge of certain conflicts (especially those outside of Europe and East Asia) is still somewhat weak, and therefore have decided to create this study guide. In it, I will go on an approximately 20-hour Wikipedia quest and summarize what I learn. It is the most focused method of preparing for this ECE that I can find. Then I intend to make the study guide public.
Please note that this study guide contains no actual exam questions, and although I believe I am compiling it competently, I have no idea what the content of the actual exam will be, and therefore this study guide is not against any of Excelsior College's rules. I have never taken the exam, or even a practice exam (none is available at the time of this writing).
I will report my score on here if I pass the exam, so people can know whether this study guide has credibility behind it or not. *UPDATE* I got an 'A.' Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the study guide!
What people sometimes seem to forget is that World War I was started by a KID. Yes, that's right, Gavrilo Princip, the Serbian nationalist student, was only 19 years old when he killed Archduke Ferdinand and Sophia, starting a war between the major powers of the world. In fact, Gavrilo Princip was so young, he could not legally receive the death penalty, so he got 20 years in prison instead! However, he got tuberculosis in prison and they had to amputate his arm because the TB reached his bone. The blood loss, malnutrition, etc. eventually caused him to die at the age of 23. However, this does not change the fact that yes, teenagers can change the world!
Essentially, Austria-Hungary had recently annexed Boznia-Herzegovina. This offended the Serbs, including the resistance group "the Black Hand." Gavrilo Princip wanted to join this group, but they rejected him for being too small and weak. To prove himself, he and six accomplices went out and tried to assassinate the Archduke with hand grenades, pistols, etc. and Princip ultimately succeeded. He and his associates tried to commit suicide, but largely failed. Princip's cyanide was probably not really cyanide — he had been the victim of a con. The police prevented him from using his pistol to kill himself, either, and so the police captured him alive. As he was less than a month short of 20, he was not eligible for the death penalty.
The war started in 1914, but the various nations had been building up their militaries quite intensively for over five years. They had been forming alliances since the 1800s that came into play in WWI. For example, the Holy Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia decayed to just Germany and Austro-Hungary when Russia left (Austria and Russia could not agree on how to handle the Balkans). This resulted in two allies that formed the core of the Central Powers. Meanwhile, in the early 1900s, France and England had allied, and this came just before an alliance between Great Britain and Russia.
The opening battles were mainly an attack by Austria against Serbia (after the July Crisis, in which Austria gave Serbia an ultimatum with ten impossible demands), an attack against Germany by Russia, and Germany attacking Belgium (the battle that got Great Britain into the war), Luxembourg, and France.
The theater in France was very intense. The Germans plowed through France and nearly reached Paris. However, in the Battle of Marne, the Allies pushed the Germans back, but by this time, the Germans had constructed very well-made trenches (as opposed to the French's hastily-made trenches). The Battles of Verdun and the Somme involved trench warfare with huge losses of life.
Poison gas was illegal according to the Hague Convention, but Germany used it in Algeria for the first time in 1915. Then they used it again and again (the first time was chlorine gas). This was really one of the primary horrors of the war.
Interestingly enough, there was a Pacific theater to WWI, as well. Japan (a member of the Allied Powers during WWI) seized Qingdao, a German colony. New Zealand seized German Samoa. Australia took over German New Guinea. Soon, every colonial possession that had been Germany's now belonged to the Allies. This basically brought the World War I Pacific Theater to an end, except some random German raiders and a small stronghold in New Guinea.
In Europe, tanks became a very important factor in battles. So did machine guns, more effective artillery, etc. For two years, neither force (the Triple Entente/Allies or the Central Powers) was able to make a large advance. They pitted various forms of technology against one another, but the lines did not change very much until around 1917 or 1918.
One of the major outcomes of the war was that the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenians got their own country. This country was Yugoslavia. Actually, many new countries in Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and Asia Minor trace their origins to the end of World War I.
The Weimar Republic was the result of events that happened at the end of World War I. A group of German ships mutinied towards the end of the war (in 1918), and many other Germans felt the conflict was pointless, a lost cause; many of these people involved themselves in the revolution in Germany of 1918 - 1919, which resulted in the Weimar Republic and the deposition of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Armistice was in 1918, and the Treaty of Versailles was in 1919. However, it is important to note that at this point, Russia had already withdrawn from the war via the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which was basically a treaty that ceded many territories (such as parts of Ukraine, Finland, etc.) to the Germans. Although these territories appeared to be very integral to Russia and a big sacrifice, Germany had to divert many troops from the western front in order to occupy these areas, which on the whole weakened Germany.
Now, it is important to discuss Russia during World War I. Russia initially had two major factions, the Reds and the Whites. The Reds were the Bolsheviks — they took control in 1917 and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which brought Russia out of the War (although Russia continued to have many Central Powers POWs in miserable conditions with roughly a 15 - 20% death rate as forced laborers until 1924). Various people involved in the Russian Civil War assassinated the Tsar, the Tsar's wife, and Rasputin, a favorite of the Tsar's family. The Allies actually staged a small invasion of Russia to help the Whites, but the Reds won anyway.
The Great War also resulted in additional autonomy for many British territories and colonies. Canada became much more autonomous and was even a signatory country for the Treaty of Versailles. Australia and New Zealand fought as ANZACs, basically independent from the Crown. Unfortunately for India, it did not fare as well — many, many Indians signed up for British military service in the hopes that India could become free, something which did not end up happening until after WWII (after WWI, figures such as Gandhi rose to power because of discontent with this fact). India did not rebel against Great Britain as feared; instead it supported Britain through the war, including massive casualties at the Battle of Gallipoli in the Near East.
As previously mentioned, the war had many theaters, not just Europe. In addition to the Pacific, there was the African Theater (where chlorine gas saw its first use), the Mesopotamian Theater (where various forces such as the ANZACs fought the Ottoman Empire), etc.
The United States did not officially enter the war until 1917. It had become angered due to the Lusitania (a British ship which got torpedoed by the Germans, resulting in American civilian deaths), but Germany temporarily halted its attacks against certain types of oceangoing vessels, and therefore the Lusitania was not the only reason America entered the war. The Zimmerman Telegram offered Mexico New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas (territories it had lost 70 years earlier in the Mexican-American War). The Germans also tried to get the Japanese in on their side of the war, offering them allied territory, but the Japanese declined, much like the Mexicans. However, the interception of this telegram angered the Americans and along with various other factors, eventually led the US to enter the war, putting 10,000 troops onto European soil per day (something with which the Germans could not keep up).
Interestingly enough, towards the end of the war, the Germans made a few heroic advances, but due to lack of tanks and mechanized infantry, they could not hold the territory they had captured. They got within 60 or 70 miles of Paris and began bombarding Paris with a gigantic piece of artillery known as the Paris Gun (capable of lobbing shells up to 75 miles), but the impact was primarily psychological. Although Paris did sustain some hits and some people fled, the city at large was not in a terribly threatening situation.
The war was especially catastrophic because it combined old-style frontal assault tactics with modern weapons. Eventually both sides adapted better to this paradigm, but when huge numbers of men marched straight into indirect machine gun fire, poison gas, etc. early in the war, the death rates were staggering.
The technology introduced in the war was very impressive. Airplanes had seen their first use in 1911 in the Italian's military during a campaign in Libya, but came into common use during WWI, first for reconnaissance and attacking ground troops, but later for even more things. In fact, a carrier carrying Sopwith Camels was part of the first carrier strike in history. Sonar (passive sonar), use of telephones, radios, tanks, poison gas, etc. were all either firsts in this war, or very new inventions. Submarine warfare (especially the German U-boats) was extensive and Germany alternated between restricted and unrestricted submarine warfare.
Germany referred to the Treaty of Versailles as the "Stab in the Back Legend." The treaty held Germany and its allies responsible for the war and made them pay reparations. Although the direct reparations ceased after 1931, loans used to make reparations contracted during the Weimar Republic are due to the US until 2010 and 2020 for other places. Therefore, money is still changing hands that is doing so because of World War I, incredibly.
In the UK, 175,000 women became widows and 300,000 children lost their fathers. Women entered the workplace more and more. People felt burnt out because the government forced them to work more hours than normal (including Sundays, in many cases) and there was much overtime. Rationing saw its first institution in 1918, although it did not limit bread, only non-staples like butter and Oleo. There were thousands of conscientious objectors in England, and employment discrimination against them after the war was very widespread. Ireland also began a revolution in 1916; essentially, all of Europe and even much of the world outside of Europe saw a huge level of disruption and disorder during and after the war.
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The Spanish Civil War in 1936 was a "dress rehearsal" for WWII. Additionally, in 1935, Hitler rose to power and the Nazis took power. They revolutionized the devastated economy and instilled/prayed on the extensive anger/anti-Semitism in the German population.
In 1938, Neville Chamberlain visited Nazi Germany and told the British they could sleep easy at night. He was wrong. The Axis was of course Germany (in a union with Austria via the Anschluss), Japan, and Italy, but there were minor players, as well, such as Romania. Although France opposed Germany, the Vichy Regime collaborated.
The Allies included Great Britain, the US, France (occupied very quickly), etc. The US joined in 1941 in response to Pearl Harbor. The Second World War started when Germany attacked Poland. Soon after, Germany skirted around the French army (who were preparing for trench warfare like WWI and routed Paris).
The Soviet Union fought extremely bravely in spite of massive casualties, the Siege of Stalingrad, lack of weapons, etc. Some Russian troops did not even have rifles — just broken bottles and baseball bats!
Great Britain and the other Allies fought valiantly, as well. To evacuate the Allied troops at Dunkirk, Britain asked for any boat in the region to help. An amazing turnout of ~850 boats (including fishing and fire boats) showed up and they evacuated the Allied troops over the English Channel.
D-Day was a massive invasion on Omaha Beach and other beaches. They predicted 75% of the paratroopers in the invasion might die. It was a bloody time, but a successful invasion, and Germany eventually fell, but not before the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler hid in a bunker hoping for a miracle. He eventually committed suicide with cyanide.
In the Pacific Theater, Japan had taken many Allied territories — Singapore, Hong Kong, Midway, Saipan, Guam, etc. It committed many atrocities, for example Unit 731.
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The Arabs resisted, however, and Britain had to cut off the flow of Jews immigrating to the region for a while. However, after World War II, millions of Jews poured into the area (understandably) and Great Britain allowed this. The UN worked on a partition of the area in which Jews could occupy one part of the region, and Palestinians the other. This was the start of the state of Israel.
However, the Arabs did not like this one bit, and they began to mass troops and their air forces in preparation for invasion. Arabs, in particular Palestinians, believed in resistance, or "Intifadeh." This culminated in the Six-Day War, in which Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against the hostile countries, wiping out their air forces (on a related note, Pakistan saw this happening and tried a similar tactic against India in 1971, but without the same success). In 1947, Israel not only held its own territory, but also grabbed more territory that had not originally belonged to it!
After that, there was a series of four wars (roughly one per decade) involving Israel, up until the 1980s. Generally, Israelis lived outside of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and Palestinians lived in these areas. In fact, there were literally millions of refugees on the Gaza strip and on the West Bank. According to the UN, Israel could not settle these areas; they were supposed to be for Palestinians.
The UN has tried various strategies at sorting out this problem over the years. One plan is the Road Map Plan, and there have been others, as well. In many cases, radical factions in the Palestinian population have opposed these things.
Inside Palestine, there are radical groups, and there are less radical groups. Hamas is very radical and does not recognize the Israeli state, and promises to maintain a constant state of war until every last Israeli man, woman, and child leaves the land that the Palestinians claim is theirs. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Then there is a less radical faction, the PLO. The PLO is also highly anti-Zionist, but at least promises on paper not to use terrorist tactics to bring down Israel. The PLO signed the Oslo Accords in 1993 and promises to try to follow a somewhat peaceful solution (although their sincerity is often in doubt). The leader of the PLO, prominent after the death of Yasser Arafat, was Abbas. Abbas is more moderate than other Palestinian leaders, which makes him a target of radical Palestinians as well, although his politics are by no means peaceful, and it seems as if Fatah (his part of the PLO) may have been responsible for quite a bit of anti-Jewish violence. Abbas withdrew to the West Bank in the late 2000s and created a government there.
Now Hamas is in favor with the majority of Palestinians, which is a very dangerous situation for Israel and peace in the region. Most Palestinians want pretty much unlimited right of return for Palestinians to come back to Israeli territory and reclaim their houses and lives with very few checkpoints (the Israelis have many security checkpoints). However, the Jews worry that the massive number of people who could pour into the country might result in the Jews becoming an ethnic minority, undermining the concept of the Jewish state.
The Jews also oppose the idea of a separate Palestinian state, because this could provide a very deadly base of operations for Arab countries to attack Israel. Israel, being right next to this hypothetical Palestinian state, could receive artillery shells fired from the new Palestinian state.
Recently, there has been extreme violence. Both sides are holding many prisoners, the Palestinians have kidnapped a key Israeli general and reporters, groups are firing rockets constantly, and Israel has erected the so-called "Apartheid Wall" which separates the West Bank and Gaza from the rest of Israel. Palestinians are angry that crossings and border checks make normal life very difficult. It appears that the Palestinians are on an increasingly radical path, and Israelis are not being benevolent by any means, either. They are settling land which the UN says is home for the Palestinians, and Israeli settlers often use violence against the Palestinians. To exacerbate the problem, there is a water shortage and the Palestinians claim the Israelis are using too much water.
Israel has made various offers that the Palestinians have found unacceptable. These include a demilitarized Palestinian pseudo-state, giving back 97% of the land (with Israeli bases on it to make sure there is not monkey business), etc.
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When Great Britain partitioned India and Pakistan, they did so in a manner that was very imperfect. 50% of the Muslim population ended up in India. The partitioning was supposed to put Muslims in Pakistan and Hindus in Hindustan (India), but this largely failed.
Kashmir is a border region. It has a majority Hindu population, but the Maharajah ceded the area to India. Pakistan wanted the territory due to the majority Muslim population, and got a tribe to attack in 1947. This was the first war between India and Pakistan. India called on the UN to mediate the dispute, and the verdict was to give part of Kashmir to Pakistan, and the other part to India.
In 1965, there was another war over Kashmir. Once again, they did not satisfactorily resolve the issue.
Once more in 1999, there was a war (this time relatively minor) over Kashmir. These wars are made dangerous by the fact that both countries possess nuclear weapons.
Pakistan and India have also had numerous other problems. Pakistani militants attacked the Indian parliament. The Kashmir issue is very divisive of the two countries.
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Stalin immediately tried to be testy. He blockaded Berlin and also often cut power to Berlin (most power plants were in E. Germany). NATO responded with a massive airlift — 4,000 tons of supplies delivered daily, rationed to the Germans (who often barely avoided starvation with 1,500 calories per day). Homes got power for only two hours per day, and in shifts (people might wake up in the middle of the night to do cooking). People walked home after 7:00 PM because public transportation was off at that point to conserve fuel. Not only did America ensure the survival of Berlin, but it also showed it could supply millions of people across the Atlantic Ocean by air — important in a war. America was in a way flexing its muscles. America passed the Marshall Plan to aid Europe and prevent it from falling to the USSR.
In 1949, the USSR got the atomic bomb. This was partially due to the Rosenbergs, who betrayed nuclear secrets. The USSR conducted its first tests in Siberia. They launched Sputnik and the space race.
In 1950, Soviets backed Kim Il-sung in invading South Korea. The new Truman Doctrine stated the US' obligation to help countries that were at risk of falling to communism. Please see the Korean War section for more details.
The Soviets took Poland (despite not following the Yalta Conference guidelines of allowing democratic elections there). They invaded Czechoslovakia and dismantled its last radio station. They also tried (but failed) to get Greece.
The USSR tried to back Ho Chi Minh and turn Vietnam communist. Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy, etc. committed troops there to prevent this from happening. This resulted in America becoming internationally unpopular, and troops pulled out in 1975. Vietnam fell to the communists. However, in the 80s, Russia had a similar blunder Afghanistan.
Up until 1954, Stalin was in power with Molotov as his foreign minister. Stalin carried out purges and killed, fired, and relocated millions. He was anti-Semitic, suspicious of those who had traveled outside of Russia and relocated ethnic minorities (for example, sending ethnic Koreans to Uzbekistan).
Khrushchev took power after Stalin's death. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a response to America putting Jupiter missiles in Turkey. The USSR put them in Cuba after America's failed Bay of Pigs Invasion (an attempt to stop Castro that could have worked had groupthink not resulted in awful planning). The Cuban Missile Crisis was in '62 and lasted 13 days.
Later, Brezhnev came to power and relaxed restrictions on religious practice. By 1987, there were around 9,000 state-owned places of worship. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and made the reforms of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Relations with the US improved. The USSR and the US were allies in the Gulf War. Then the USSR collapsed in 1991.
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The United States sent military advisors in the 1950s and 60s, and the first actual normal ground troops in 1965. By 1969, Vietnam had 500,000 American troops stationed there. Unfortunately, around 58,000 Americans died in the war, and this caused America to pull out in 1973. South Vietnam was unable to resist the onslaught, and in 1975, North Vietnam succeeded in taking South Vietnam and uniting the country. Later, America erected the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. in order to commemorate the men and women who died on the US side in Vietnam. However, deaths among the Vietnamese were far more severe. The Vietnamese government released estimates that 1.1 million combatants died and 2 million civilians died. The war was extremely unpopular and made the US look bad. However, the USSR made a similar blunder in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Vietnam and the US restored formal diplomatic relations in 1995.
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The peninsula has been the victim of the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the USSR, etc. However, it is important to note that at least the USSR brought temporary stability to the region, albeit at the expense of certain human rights and freedoms.
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Basically, Iraq rolled over Kuwait and took it quite easily. However, the UN declared this invasion illegal and UN forces massed in the Persian Gulf. The vast majority of these forces were American. This was Operation Desert Shield, and the goal was to intimidate Saddam into leaving Kuwait. Unfortunately, he failed to do so.
In response, the UN force initiated Operation Desert Storm, in which they attacked Southern Iraq and retook Kuwait. The Iraqi casualties were probably somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 men, but the coalition that attacked only had about 300 casualties, so from a casualty standpoint, it was an extreme success, and liberated Kuwait.
Operation Desert Saber pushed farther into the Iraqi interior, and meanwhile, the UN passed a resolution stating that trade with Iraq was illegal. Therefore, Iraq's economy was in a bad place. The UN ultimatum was that Iraq had to completely disable its weapons of mass destruction programs or else face a continued embargo. Iraq eventually claimed to have destroyed its weapons of mass destruction, but whether it really did this is still arguable. A follow-up military operation in the 90s called Operation Desert Fox followed up on the Gulf War. In 2003, the United States invaded and a court eventually had Saddam Hussein executed.
Some of the provisions of the 1991 ultimatum were that not only was Iraq to give up all weapons of mass destruction, but it also had to dispose of any missiles capable of flying more than 90 miles. Its weapons were to be for defensive purposes only. Fortunately, after the Gulf War of 1991, the threat of Iraq to neighboring Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, was lessened by a considerable amount. Fears in Saudi Arabia that Saddam Hussein's aggression might spread there was one of the main reasons for Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Desert Saber, and Desert Fox.
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The problem with liberal theory (the theory of George W. Bush) is that often a country is not ready for democracy and ethnic and other types of conflict within that country can lead to civil war and other problems. However, at least the liberal conflict theory is optimistic about what the world will be like should every country become liberal and democratic.
Realist theory is pessimistic. However, even in realist theory, there is room for world peace if every country decides it is in its best interest.
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Oxfam is a good example of an NGO. Its primary concern is alleviating hunger and poverty in third world countries. It also prioritizes giving access to clean drinking water. It receives a great deal of funding from the British government, but does not have British government representatives, so it is an NGO.
As a rule, NGOs are not subjects of international law. However, the Red Cross is an exception to this.
There are many, many NGOs worldwide. Russia has over 200,000, and India has an estimated 1 - 2 million NGOs!
There are various adaptations of NGOs that are modified versions or similar to NGOs. They include GONGOs (government organizations trying to masquerade as NGOs), QUANGOs (quasi-NGOs like ISO that may have some governments from some countries representing things), etc.
NGOs generally have a goal to accomplish something humanitarian, political, for the good of society, etc. Funding is usually from donations, government grants, etc. and these organizations often have budgets of millions or billions of dollars and are an important source of employment, especially in developing countries (DCs).
Now, this section is on IGOs. IGO stands for "inter-governmental organization." Perhaps it is a good idea to give some examples of IGOs: the UN, the World Bank, NATO, the IMF, the European Union, ASEAN (for Southeast Asian countries), the African Union, NAFTA, etc. IGOs have a great deal more power than NGOs, and IGOs rely on signatory countries to operate. Governments are explicitly part of the process. Generally, governments give up some varying level of sovereignty for an arrangement that benefits all the signatories in the long run. For example, EU member nations give up the right of their citizens to be the only ones allowed to work in their home countries (they have to share) but the advantage of this is that they can go to any other EU state and work. Pretty cool! IGOs are great for collective security, pooling up finances and doling them out to alleviate problems (like the World Bank, which provides assistance to developing countries, such as in developing infrastructure and giving loans).
IGOs have a shorter history than NGOs. Whereas NGOs are hundreds of years old, the first IGOs appeared in the late 1800s — one of the first IGOs was the convention on the navigation of the Rhine (I forget the name). Another famous IGO was the League of Nations, and there were some others, as well.
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Self-help is the believe that a nation should help itself instead of relying on collective security. It can do this by pursuing balance of power, building up its arms, etc.
The United Nations has a security council called the United Nations Security Council, as mentioned previously. This security council can decide whether to intervene in a conflict. Once it has reached a decision, it is final for the UN, and the General Assembly cannot override it. Perhaps a regional organization can take action, which is something that has happened in some cases when the UN has failed to take action. The UN also sometimes takes non-military action in the form of economic sanctions or that sort of thing. For example, in 1991, the UN slapped sanctions on Iraq until it gave up weapons of mass destruction, observed no-fly zones, allowed observers to ascertain that the minorities there were not the victims of harassment, etc. These are some examples of how the UN can act to manage conflict.
Unilateralism is when one side decides to do something without the consent of the other. For example, when the US went to war with Iraq despite the UN not approving the action, this was unilateralism.
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S. Korea was not an industrial country (much more agrarian than the north). It had dictator Syngman Rhee who at least nominally approved of democracy. Since the US had the Truman Doctrine, it was essential that the US come to S. Korea's aid.
North Korea (under Kim Il-sung) used Soviet weapons and a more powerful army and invaded Seoul in a surprise attack. One of the first things the North Koreans did was bomb the bridges out of Seoul. Therefore, a large percentage of the Korean population became trapped and unable to leave Seoul. The North Korea forces rolled over the country and eventually ended up just outside of Busan (spelled Pusan at that time). Pusan is the second-most important city in South Korea, and they held out for a while, but needed American help, so they appealed to America for help. America made a brave landing at Incheon (spelled Inchon at that time) and drove the North Koreans up to the Chinese border. It appeared to be over for the North Koreans, when suddenly, 1,000,000 Chinese volunteers, including many Joseonjok, streamed over the border and drove back the combined Republic of Korea and United States forces past Seoul (in other words, they retook Seoul). Another offensive on the part of the US and South Korea drove the line above Seoul, once again, to around the 38th parallel (the Sampalseon in Korean).
The line did not move much after that. The war did not officially involve the Chinese government, but many Chinese were present and Chinese POW camps forced (and tried to brainwash) US troops using propaganda with absurd things like brave Chinese men ripping the hatches off American tanks and hurling grenades inside, completely fearless. Americans who cooperated received acceptable treatment in Chinese prisons; those who did not often had to listen to three- or four-hour lectures in the bitter cold. Americans who ended up in North Korean prison camps fared much worse and often got shot on sight.
Eventually, McArthur proposed strategic nuclear bombing near the China/North Korea border, and this got him dismissed from his post. The US was not willing to enter war with China. The 38th parallel became the modern DMZ, or demilitarized zone. Currently Kim Jong-il is the heir to Kim Il-sung, although at the time of this writing, Kim Jong-il is at least very sick, and possibly dead. The war never officially ended, and North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 (when I was in Seoul as a student).
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First of all, it is important to understand a little bit about what kind of country Bangladesh is before launching into the summary of the conflict there. Bangladesh has cool, dry winters and hot, humid summers, and the major cities are Dhaka (the capital) and Chittagong (one of the port cities, which also has an international airport). The official language is Bangla. The country borders India and Burma, as well as the Bay of Bengal. Wildlife includes the Bengal tiger, the spotted deer, numerous types of riverine life, etc. The country has many centuries-old ruins and tourist beaches, as well. The currency is the taka. The country's primary agricultural product is rice, with other things like jute and tobacco (as well as other tropical crops) taking up important places. Bangladesh is approximately 88% Muslim and approximately 11% Hindu, with about 1% following other religions. The main language is Bangla, but English is also spoken by some, and Arabic is known sometimes in religious contexts. As for other interesting information about Bangladesh, some key exports are cigarettes, newsprint, rayon, etc. Bangladesh's major port is Chittagong, from which there is a great deal of shipping. A big national holiday is Victory Day (or maybe Independence Day, I'm not quite sure) which is celebrated on December 16.
Now, in regard to the conflicts that took place there, it was a complicated series that started with the partition of India into multiple areas around 1947. At this time, India and Pakistan were made into separate places, and Bangladesh became part of East Pakistan. It remained with East Pakistan for a number of years, but civil unrest began in the late 1960s and culminated in a revolution in 1971. There was a man named Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who started the Awami League (a group concerned with making Bangla the official language of the region). There was friction between him and Yahya Khan, the president in Pakistan, because the people wanted Sk. Mujibur Rahman to be the prime minister, and Yahya Khan refused to allow it. In 1970, a major cyclone hit East Bengal (the name of the area at that time). The result was that many, many people died, and it was believed that the government dealt with it poorly. Mujibur Rahman got arrested by Yahya Khan in 1971, and this led to a revolution.
During the revolution, several belligerents were present. There were the Bangladeshi freedom fighters, who used mostly guerilla tactics. They had the help of the Indian army, which supported Bangladeshi independence — the combined force of Bangladeshis and Indians were called the "Mitro Bahini." These two forces fought against the troops from Pakistan and won, including capturing 90,000 or so Pakistani POWs. The Pakistani government's actions that led to the war were not only its poor response to the cyclone, but also its targeting of Hindus and intellectuals in "Operation Searchlight," which included displacing 10 million Hindus to India. Eventually, Bangladesh (with plenty of help from India) won the war and established itself as a sovereign country.
However, Bangladesh was not out of the woods, yet. There was a famine in that area that killed about half a million people, and there was more unrest in the country, and there was a bloody coup in the mid-1970s, which resulted in Ziaur Rahman taking power (note that assassins killed Mujib and most of his family). Then there was another dictator who ruled mainly during the 80s (Ershad), up to the early 1990s. At various times after the coups, the country experimented with socialism.
In the early 1990s, the country began to follow a path to parliamentary democracy once again. Mujib's widow was one example of someone who was involved in a political party that appeared to be very popular. Bangladesh has now stabilized to some degree and there is a "caretaker government" responsible for making sure the elections are not rigged and that sort of thing, and this has resulted in the trials of many officials for corruption.
Now, to go more into depth, the war started not only because of Yahya Khan jailing Mujibur Rahman, but also because of the huge disparities between East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now simply "Pakistan"). The vast majority (around 60 - 70%) of the Pakistani government's budget went to West Pakistan. This was in spite of East Pakistan having the slight majority of the country's population. Furthermore, very few East Pakistanis were allowed to enter the officer ranks of the military, or serve in the Pakistani government. This had been angering the East Pakistanis since the 1950s (the time of one of the first police massacres of students).
The war was also significant because of the role of the US and the Soviets. The US wanted to back up Pakistan, not necessarily because they agreed with them ideologically, but because Pakistan was allied with China, and the US was beginning to court an alliance with China as a way to oppose the USSR. Meanwhile, India signed an agreement with Russia that amounted to an alliance, and India even received Russian tanks which it put to good use in the war against Pakistan. The US actually sent the U.S.S. Enterprise (a nuclear-armed ship) to the Bay of Bengal. The Soviets tailed this ship and also sent a nuclear submarine. Therefore, this conflict was part of the Cold War, not just an isolated conflict in South Asia.
The Bangladesh Independence War also led to a brief war between India and Pakistan between December 3, 1971 and December 16, 1971. At the beginning of the war in Bangladesh, they assumed that the freedom fighters did not have the capacity to win. However, India secretly trained the guerillas in Indian camps and provided plenty of aid to the freedom fighters (called the Muktir Mahini). Soon, by November or December of 1971, the Pakistanis decided to make a pre-emptive strike against India's air force, much like the Israeli pre-emptive strike in the Six-Day War. However, it failed, and India began the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. They served Pakistan an instrument of surrender soon after, which Pakistan signed. Fortunately, India was fairly benevolent and tried its best not to oppress Pakistan anymore than necessary, fearing it might cause the country to collapse and cause even more problems between the countries down the road. However, the government there did collapse, the leading general from the Bangladesh campaign was branded a traitor, Yahya Khan found himself ousted, and Bhutto became the leader of Pakistan.
The war was very significant because as many as 3,000,000 died (this depends on whether one is trusting Pakistani or Bangladeshi sources). Many women were raped and some were supposedly used as sex slaves by the Pakistani army. It resulted in the formation of Bangladesh and worsened relations between India and Pakistan to the point of war. Pakistan was devastated — it had lost half its territory. India demonstrated successfully that it had the power to win a war with Pakistan. Although there is a possibility China could have entered the war on the side of Pakistan, it avoided doing so after the costly Sino-Indian War in the 60s, and also, at the time it could have provided assistance, the Himalayas were too snowy to traverse.
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The conflict in Cyprus (the modern conflict, that is) goes as follows. Essentially, Cyprus has been home to both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots for a long time. The Ottoman Empire gave the British the use of the island of Cyprus in the 1800s, so that the British could put troops on it and defend it (the Ottoman Empire was worried about the Russians, with whom they had had a war). The British took the island and appreciated it because it was near the mouth of the Suez Canal, effectively safeguarding their passage to India, the Crown's most important colony. However, eventually the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain ended up at war. This is because the Ottoman Empire was on the Central Powers in WWI, whereas Great Britain was a member of the Allies. Great Britain formally annexed the island and turned it into a regular Crown colony in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I.
In more modern history (or rather, post-modern history), the island had a majority of Greek Cypriots and a minority of Turkish Cypriots. Initially Great Britain offered the Greek Cypriots an opportunity to form a somewhat autonomous area with a constitution, but the Cypriots shot it down. Greece and the Greek Cypriots wanted to reunite desperately, and 90% of Greek Cypriots supported reunification.
Turkey began to invade the island and might have succeeded in taking the whole thing, except that the United States stepped in and refused to allow it to happen. The US told the Turks that if they continued their invasion of Cyprus, the US did not have an obligation to support Turkey in the event that the USSR invaded Turkey. Therefore, Turkey backed down, at least temporarily.
Eventually, in the 1970s, there was a military coup d'etat on the island and the Greeks seized control. The Turks were extremely angry, obviously, and continued their invasion, capturing a large portion of the island and calling it "The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus." The Greek sphere of influence and the Turkish sphere of influence had a demarcation line at a certain street, and the powers erected a wall there. Many civilians died in this incident, and the US made an arms embargo against Turkey because Turkey used US weapons in this invasion. Finally, very recently (last couple of years), the wall on the street separating the two sides got torn down, ending 32 years of separation.
It is important to note that only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Republic of Cyprus. Most others do not recognize this.
The gist of the war is this. In the 1960s, the Junta took control of Greece. It was rule by the military, especially the colonels, in the Greek military. They were rather extreme nationalists and wanted pan-Hellenism. The Turks also had their eyes on the Turkish population of Cyprus because like the Greek Cypriots, the Turkish Cypriots had also had upbringings with nationalistic educations courtesy of the British (who fostered adherence to ethnic identity as a "divide and conquer" strategy to keep Cyprus form having a distinctive national identity and seceding). However, Cyprus actually did end up seceding.
Jumping back to the 1950s and 1960 (when Cyprus became independent), the Cypriots wanted independence from the British, and two organizations on the island fought the British in a guerilla war fashion using bombs and other such things. The two organizations were EOKA and TMT. EOKA was the Greek Cypriot organization, whereas TMT was the Turkish Cypriot organization. EOKA received arms secretly from the Greek government. Eventually Cyprus became an independent nation (in fact, it eventually entered the EU and used the Euro as its currency). However, before ascension to the EU (back in 1974), a series of events happened that rocked the island.
The Greek military junta took control of Greece (much to the dismay of many people) and fairly immediately, they deposed the archbishop and ruler of Cyprus, Makarios III. He managed to flee his assassins by exiting the building with a group of touring school children and grabbing a taxi, then flying out on a fighter jet, but he barely made it in time! Makarios III had been fairly moderate and had hoped to preserve peace between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
The Greek Junta installed Sampson in his place, who was a much more radical Greek nationalist. He advocated all sorts of violence against Turks and wanted them banished from Cyprus. There were raids of Turkish-owned stores and businesses and mobs, military, etc. destroyed many of them. Turks were still technically legal citizens of Cyprus, but things were not looking good.
Turkey retaliated. It denied residence permits to 12,000 Greek citizens living in Istanbul. Things got more and more tense, and in 1974, Turkey invaded, despite threats by the US and despite the opposition of the UN. Turkey hid behind a clause in the 1960 treaty stating that Turkey or Greece could intervene in Cyprus' affairs to protect the interests of ethnic Greeks or Turks. In fact, the Turkish leader initially claimed the invasion was to safeguard Greeks as well as Turks.
The Turkish occupation proved not to be so benevolent. Turkey is currently in violation of 14 different UN rules, and people widely believe the invasion has the elements of ethnic cleansing. Greeks found themselves expelled from their homes and unable to return. The Turks and the Greeks fought a great deal using various forms of weaponry obtained from abroad, and the cease fire line is the Green Line. Turkey controls about 37% of the island, more than the Geneva Convention says it can.
Cyprus, Turkey, and Greece have worked to alleviate some of the problems, and fortunately, people can now reclaim their houses if they still exist, and get monetary compensation if they do not. Greeks are slightly freer in their ability to travel into Turkish-held territory. Bilateral travel is easier than it used to be. However, the two parts of the island are still in a state of division. Annan's plan was a plan for reunification, but the Greeks in Cyprus opposed it.
As a result of the conflict, the United States stopped selling arms to Turkey, many Greeks ended up displaced, and thousands of people died. The Republic of Cyprus is part of the EU, but the northern part is not. However, those in the northern part that can prove their Republic of Cyprus citizenship are EU citizens.
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Basically, Iraq had a ground invasion and used missiles and other things to go dozens of kilometers into Iranian territory. However, Iranian resistance was very fierce and they began to drive the Iraqis out. At that point, Saddam began to regret his decision to invade Iran, and tried to make peace with Iran, but the leader of Iran was very angry and wanted to oust Saddam from power. Iran continued to push on Iraq's forces, but superior Iraqi firepower made it impossible for Iran to penetrate deep into Iraqi territory. Eventually, in 1988, Iraq agreed to a ceasefire, and in 1990, the two countries restored diplomatic relations and made a peace treaty.
The conflict was also famous for its genocide. Saddam Hussein used poison gas to kill about 5,000 Kurds and also some Shi'ite Muslims. These groups, he believed, were loyal to Iran. The use of poison gas made it much harder for Saddam to push for the UN to force peace on Iran, since Saddam had committed atrocities.
Furthermore, this conflict had Saudi Arabia and Kuwait financing it. This paved the way for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
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Islam's clash with Hinduism has largely occurred in India. A perfect example of this is the war between East and West Pakistan, which East Pakistan won. Please see the Bangladesh section. Additionally, please note that India has approximately 50% of the original British India's Muslim population, and therefore Muslims and Hindus frequently come into conflict and many people die as a result.
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Water and oil are a major source of conflict in the Middle East. For example, Palestinians are angry (among many more important reasons) because Israel diverts huge quantities of water to the Jewish area, but the West Bank and Gaza Strip have a disproportionately small amount sent to them.
Diamonds and oil are a key source of conflict in Africa. Conflict diamonds are currency for arms from other countries.
Drugs are a resource in Latin America and Asia. They are worth billions of dollars and there are poppy fields in countries like Myanmar. Drug cartels often start conflicts. Note the contras in South America.
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Somalia had wide-scale political unrest and widespread violence. Ethiopia and other African nations did a humanitarian intervention. The US agreed with Ethiopia, but unfortunately the Somalis are now angry at both Ethiopia and the United States, thinking both have caused many problems.
Rwanda had a genocide. One of the ethnic groups in Rwanda was the Hutus. Many of those involved in the genocide fled to Europe, where they knew they did not have to face extradition since Rwanda had the death penalty and many EU states do not extradite to death penalty countries. In response the Rwandan government abolished the death penalty and is now collecting those responsible so it can punish them. The genocide in Rwanda required humanitarian intervention.
East Timor had a great deal of violence. For example, some college students got taken off a bus and murdered and someone made a movie about it. The UN had to intervene in a humanitarian intervention. In conclusion, sometimes IGOs need to intervene in humanitarian interventions to keep the peace and safeguard human lives.
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