Exhaustive Study Notes on Decolonization and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

By the year $1975$ , nearly all classical European colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East were gone.
The bulk of this transition occurred rapidly, with many colonies becoming independent by $1963$ .
Decolonization was accompanied by a phenomenon termed "Hesserophobia," defined as the fear and loathing of the West.
This anti-Western sentiment was often more virulent in Communist China than in Africa, where movements was more focused on independence and self-reliance rather than pure xenophobia.
In China, Hesserophobia extended to the Soviet Union because the Chinese viewed Soviets as Europeans, contributing to the Sino-Soviet split.
Harold Macmillan, the British Prime Minister, conducted a "farewell tour" of Sub-Saharan Africa in February $1960$ , delivering his famous "Wind of Change" speech.
Despite his rhetoric regarding the end of white rule, Macmillan was famously carried around in lounge chairs by submissive natives and celebrated by tribal chieftains during this tour.

White settler populations in Rhodesia and South Africa resisted the transition to black majority rule.
The prevailing principle for British decolonization was "no independence before black majority rule."
Rhodesia, under Ian Smith, declared unilateral independence in $1965$ specifically to maintain white predominance, leading to international isolation and a "bush war."
South Africa maintained the system of apartheid, which was decried in the West; however, its vast resources meant that international embargoes against it were often loose and poorly enforced.

Nelson Mandela was a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party, a fact not widely known during the Cold War.
The Soviet Union did not control every move of the African National Congress (ANC) but sought angles of influence by supporting guerrilla groups against leaders like Ian Smith.
Soviet influence was particularly strong in the Horn of Africa and the eastern side of the continent, including Mozambique, Angola, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
Soviet inroads were also made in Uganda and Ghana, though they were less successful in former French zones.
In the Belgian Congo, the UN and the US pressured Belgium for autonomy, leading to the rise of Patrice Lumumba.
Lumumba was later toppled in a CIA-backed coup after he attempted to invite Soviet influence; he was replaced by Mobutu Sese Seko.
Mobutu, a notoriously corrupt US client, famously nicknamed himself "the cock that leaves no hen alone."
It is estimated that foreign aid to the Congo (later Zaire) under Mobutu totaled roughly $9,000,000,000$ , a figure nearly identical to his private foreign bank account holdings.
Cuba served as a proxy for Soviet "soft power" in Africa, providing darker-skinned personnel who were less racially conspicuous than white Soviets; by the late $1970s$ , Cuba had nearly $100,000$ people on the ground in Angola, Mozambique, and Ethiopia.

Decolonization often led to the "big man" problem, where dictators utilized communist doctrines of nationalization to seize property and share it among cronies.
Statistics of instability in the $1960s$ include: - French-administrated Africa: $6$ military coups. - Sierra Leone: $3$ military coups. - Congo-Brazzaville, Togo, and Upper Volta (Burkina Faso): $2$ military coups each.
Ghana (the former Gold Coast) was the first to gain independence in $1957$ . Its leader, Kwame Nkrumah, was democratically elected in $1954$ but eventually banned opposition parties in $1961$ , declaring himself the sole voice of Africa before becoming a Soviet client.
The transition to independence was often more stable in countries that fought for it (e.g., Vietnam, China) compared to those where it was suddenly granted without institutional preparation.
Canada is cited as an example of slow decolonization; it achieved autonomy in $1867$ but did not gain formal constitutional independence until $1982$ .

Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution was fueled by a blend of communist ideology and intense anti-Western/anti-capitalist resentment rooted in the humiliation of the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion.
The Sino-Soviet split deepened after Nikita Khrushchev's $1956$ "Secret Speech" denouncing Stalin.
Khrushchev criticized Mao's "Great Leap Forward" (launched in $1958$ ) as a repetition of Soviet mistakes, specifically citing the horrors of famine and cannibalism.
Mao dismissed Khrushchev as a "revisionist," "capitalist roader," and "time server."
In $1959$ , the Soviets cut off nuclear information sharing with China.
Head of State Liu Shaoqi privately informed Mao that the ongoing famine was a "man-made disaster" and that history would judge them for the resulting cannibalism. Mao responded by doubling down on class struggle.
In $1964$ , Mao became increasingly paranoid about a coup similar to the one that ousted Khrushchev. This coincided with the escalation of the Vietnam War.

China sent $170,000$ troops/support personnel to North Vietnam by $1967$ , far more than the Soviet Union.
Chinese anti-aircraft units engaged in over $2,000$ firefights with US pilots, shooting down more than $1,700$ US warplanes.
Internally, Mao launched an aggressively anti-education campaign, denouncing even the traditional Confucian exam system.
He renamed the Ministry of Culture the "Ministry of Dead People" due to its perceived conservatism.
The "Little Red Book" (Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong) was unveiled as the primary text for children and soldiers.

Launched in the spring of $1966$ , the Cultural Revolution aimed to sweep away the "Four Olds": Old Thought, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits.
Students were encouraged to leave school, form groups of "Red Guards," and terrorize teachers, elders, and "capitalist roaders."
In Beijing, approximately $200$ people per day were killed during the peak in August $1966$ ; total deaths between June and September of that year reached $1,700$ in the city.
Red Guard demands included: - Abolishing taxis and first-class rail travel. - Making bicycles free. - Prohibiting the sale of goldfish, birds, and antiques. - Mandatory Mao portraits in all shops. - Burning all books not representing "Mao Thought."
The Red Guards attacked foreign embassies, including the Soviet embassy, where they famously threatened to "cut the skin off" the Soviets.
A border war between the Soviets and Chinese erupted in $1969$ , which some felt was the closest the world had come to a local nuclear exchange.
By $1968$ , Mao realized the chaos had gone too far and sent the army to suppress the Red Guards, relocating hundreds of thousands of urban youth to the countryside for agricultural labor.