posted
China, Korea, Japan are a few of the countries and continent that were able to resist and repel invading Europeans. Fractured countries were prime candidates for European invasion and control.
America's consolidation enabled them to resist the British as China's early unification allowed them to resist and repel the Dutch. It's very difficult to determine if at any time in African history there existed a person with the vision and determination to unify the continent and actually accomplished this mission by consolidating over 50% of the continent.
China unified in 256BC under the Qin dynasty. The purpose being to end wars between different clans and states.
The Three Kingdoms of Korea unified in 668BC by the Silla state with aid from China's unified leader, The Tang dynasty.
Japan began to achieve unification during the Sengoku period (c. 1467 – c. 1603) when all political power was unified under the Tokugawa shogunate.
All three of the above suffered, survived and repelled multiple invasions by various European aggressors. All three just barely managed to maintain control of their collectives primarily due to their earlier consolidations.
Africa - Was there ever an attempt to consolidate and end massive life taking tribal conflict by Africans?
With it's long ancient history it is impossible to imagine that not once was there not a visionary whose goal was the unification of the continent and had actually set out and achieved some level of unification. Can anyone assist by identifying these rare African unification minded leader/warriors?
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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posted
The last unified African Empire was the Mali empire.
By the time Europeans came on the scene much of the world was fragmented. The Jamasee established a strong confederation to drive the whites out of the Carolinas--but the Cherokee withdrew from the Confederation and the whites defeated the Jamasee.
In Africa and the Americas, Blacks were either sold out by mongoloid Indians in the Americas, or other Blacks in Africa.
Sadly, since the fall of Mali tribalism led to the end of independent Black Nations in Africa and the Americas.
-------------------- C. A. Winters Posts: 13012 | From: Chicago | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters: The last unified African Empire was the Mali empire.
By the time Europeans came on the scene much of the world was fragmented. The Jamasee established a strong confederation to drive the whites out of the Carolinas--but the Cherokee withdrew from the Confederation and the whites defeated the Jamasee.
In Africa and the Americas, Blacks were either sold out by mongoloid Indians in the Americas, or other Blacks in Africa.
Sadly, since the fall of Mali tribalism led to the end of independent Black Nations in Africa and the Americas.
This is my point. What good is history when readers fail to comprehend and learn, destined to repeat the same mistakes? In the presence of truth, they become reactionary and emotional, clinging to tribalism.
Sadly, it is a regrettable reality that new founded countries like Liberia failed because they allowed tribalism to survive and ultimately fall to foreign influence. To this day, hundreds of years later Africans still fail to comprehend why their continent has been lost. Even unified countries/continents barely won due to internal political conflicts and national traitors. In a disjointed continent full of fractured nations, resistance against an organized aggressor such as Europe is hopeless. If African can't stand against Europe, then they have absolutely no chance against the future expanding China.
I was hoping for an older, larger example of African unification attempts because even Mali failed to unite 25% or more of the continent. I have a feeling that long ago this has had to happen, but no records survive to reference.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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posted
You have to consider the factors below, and refine your argument. China in fact failed to resist European encroachment and was roundly defeated by the imperialists in several wars. It had to live under decades of humiliation via the "unequal treaties", and European extra-territoriality where European enclaves ruled by European law trumped Chinese law.
As far as America, native resistance and consolidation helped, but America's independence was also heavily due to the assistance rendered by France which provided massive arms support. 90% of the gunpowder used by the American rebels was provided by France. At the final Battle of Yorktown the French actually had more troops in the local theater, including naval forces than either the Americans or the British, and sealed British doom by cutting British communications at Yorktown with their naval forces. You need to take account of the importance of outside support, which is often critical for fighting against imperialism. The Vietnamese effort drew billions in support from BOTH Russia and China, from SAM missiles, to rice, to AK-47 rifles. Without it the Vietnamese would have failed.
As far as continents, you don't need continental unity to beat the European imperialists. The Ethiopians did quite well in their backyard when they crushed the Italians at Adowa for example. The EUro imperialists also suffered several defeats by decentralized peoples fighting defensive and guerrilla warfare. In fact, centralized states were sometimes a damper on resistance, for once a particular king had been beaten, their whole kingdom or empire was severely weakened, hindering further resistance down the road.
The black Maroon freedom fighters in Surinam and elsewhere defeated the imperialists by fighting across a broad front in a decentralized manner, rather than conveniently gathering in one place to be crushed. By contrast the famous Palmares quilombo of Brazil got too comfortable and centralized most of its assets in one location, where eventually the imperialists converged and destroyed it. Where the freedom fighters were decentralized they held out a lot longer and were more successful. China lost to imperialism in part because once the central royal armies were defeated, the whole structure collapsed or was badly weakened. Now this does not mean a central regime is not good- it can be very helpful- but keep in mind that it is no panacea as far as long term resistance.
Look at a balanced picture. Unified African resistance would have been very helpful in SOuth Africa if thee various nations could have cooperated. If the Zulu for example had collaborated with the Xhosa at the Cape they could have created a vast battle space sufficient to defeat or stalemate the racist forces. In fact the British at one time speculated about and were worried about such collaboration. The Xhosa could have tied down the imperialists with their guerrilla style while the Zulu could have used the Xhosa guerrilla screen to strike with their sweeping main force style at the right moment. But there are few examples of such collaboration among the African peoples. In fact SA history is full of division, and the Zulu alienated numerous tribes that could have helped them in the struggle. The racist Boers and British as a result were able to "divide and conquer."
The Xhosa and Zulu cases offer examples also of what I say above. The Zulu won some victories against the British but basically folded after one year. The decentralized Xhosa tribes, by contrast, who had no central king or headquarters, held back white encroachment at the Cape for almost a century. UNity does not mean everybody is ruled by one king or headquarters. UNITY OF METHOD OR OBJECTIVE is the key. The exact implementation details can vary. A loose alliance by dedicated people over a broad front, can be just as, or more effective than attempts to create a central headquarters, which often when defeated, can bring down the entire resistance with it.
Unity under a central boss can be difficult to achieve. Decentralized Unity of Method or Objective may be better. Unity is oft hindered by poor communications. Things might have been different if say the Maroons of Surinam were able to collaborate with the fighters of the huge Berbice rebellion in Guyana less than 200 miles away. In fact the Berbice freedom fighters talked of moving out to Surinam but nothing much came of it. They attacked fortified positions en-masse and were mown down by European firepower, and then the fragmented remnants were hunted down. If they could have opened up aline of communication into Surinam, this would have provided a path of retreat, as well as expanded the battlespace.
A broad battlespace is also a key to fighting imperialism. In Vietnam, PAVN and the Vietcong Main Forces operated across 3 countries, North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and had indigenous guerrilla allies in Laos (Pathet Lao) and Cambodia (Khmer Rouge). In North Vietnam, the regular PAVN armies provided "the backstop". Of course, massive amounts of manpower, and multiple billions in Soviet and Chinese aid were also keys. Nothing like this prevailed in Africa. Hell manpower supplies were limited to begin with.
-------------------- Note: I am not an "Egyptologist" as claimed by some still bitter, defeated, trolls creating fake profiles and posts elsewhere. Hapless losers, you still fail. My output of hard data debunking racist nonsense has actually INCREASED since you began.. Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
^ The European NEVER totally took over China as you imply. They managed to defeat China due to China's old and corrupt internal political landscape, and Opium wars, but when the Chinese rectified their politics, and because they had already unified, they easily defeated and repelled the invaders. Unification allowed China to leverage every clan in China to work towards a common goal. To defeat the albino invaders. Plus, the invasion was a unified invasion by Europe consisting of the Dutch, The British and the French. Ancient Cultural tradition allowed China to deal with internal traitors where not only the traitor was prosecuted and executed, but his whole family, sometimes generations of family. Because of unification, this prosecution was universal across the continent. There are ancient Chinese traitors whose names even today bear the mark of the treacherous ways.
Who were the traitors of Africa during the slavery period. I'm positive that many thousands of them exist, but who are they? Africa should have kept their names alive for centuries as examples. Yet, they are all forgiven and forgotten. Same for African American traitors. That is the absolute worst strategy in the world.
Are you also implying that Africa's landscape is less than Vietnam? Instead, it's a better assessment to say that Vietnam was better consolidated than Africa, which is why a small nation can repel what a whole continent could not.
As I said, any attempts to justify Africa's failure to unify is reactionary, because there simply is no good reason for not achieving unification. Everything has a trade-off, and the trade-off of not unifying maintaining tribalism is there will be no true continental security and encouragement of scores of distinct dis-unifying internal conflict.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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quote:Originally posted by Narmerthoth: What good is history when readers fail to comprehend and learn, destined to repeat the same mistakes? In the presence of truth, they become reactionary and emotional, clinging to tribalism.
Sadly, it is a regrettable reality that new founded countries like Liberia failed because they allowed tribalism to survive and ultimately fall to foreign influence. To this day, hundreds of years later Africans still fail to comprehend why their continent has been lost. Even unified countries/continents barely won due to internal political conflicts and national traitors. In a disjointed continent full of fractured nations, resistance against an organized aggressor such as Europe is hopeless. If African can't stand against Europe, then they have absolutely no chance against the future expanding China.
I was hoping for an older, larger example of African unification attempts because even Mali failed to unite 25% or more of the continent. I have a feeling that long ago this has had to happen, but no records survive to reference.
But few have ever gotten continental unity. The US failed to unify North America- for Canada is independent. South America is not unified, Spain and Portugal both failed. China has failed to unify Asia. Greece failed. Rome came close but only for a while then it too failed.
Continental unification is not needed to do great things or to defeat an invader. If you have to wait for continental unity hell you will be waiting for millennia. As for tribalism, this has good and bad aspects. As noted above decentralized tribes often put up a longer, better fight than centralized kingdoms which sometimes folded quickly after a few defeats.
And how is Liberia a case of defeat? Who allowed tribalism? The Black American colonists were no paragons of virtue. In fact they sometimes oppressed the native African tribes and even allowed slavery on their territory. This is one of the reasons the Africans under Master Sgt Samuel Doe took over in that bloody coup. There was at least a century of native resentment at the Black American settlers.
Continental unity is not needed to resist aggression. How on earth you gonna get continental unity with places like Egypt and Algeria who more identify with the Arab world? In any conflict what Africans would need is regional collaboration, and they would need an outside power like China or Russia to supply advanced weaponry. There need be no central headquarters, or any continental body.
Unity is nice but don't fall into the "if we ain't totally unified we can't do anything" trap. If we have to wait for this state of perfect unity before anything gets done, then we will fail.
Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Re dealing with China, yes I would agree more collaboration is needed but the key is what's being done at the national level. ELites are giving away the store to China. Too often the Chinese bribe those at the top who mortgage the nations resources away, and shaft the ordinary African on the street. They need to be driving a lot harder bargain. It is sickening what is going on. In Namidia for example the ruling clique took Chinese money in exchange for issuing thousands of easy passports for the CHinese. Now Chinese merchants are popping up in even small rural towns, undercutting poor, small time African traders trying to eke out a living.
In Tanzania one can see Chinese hawking INDIVIDUAL CIGARETTES on the street, using their overseas connections to flood the market with cheapos, cutting out the small African vendor who used to earn a living with such things. Why the hell doe Africa need to import people selling single smokes on the corner? WHat? We ain't got people who can do that?
At higher levels, the BS continues for the Chinese are oft not transferring skills but insist on building numerous projects with Chinese labor AND material made in China- Chinese steel, cement, chemicals etc. Even low level jobs on some of these projects are filled with Chinese. Its bullshiit what is going on in some places, yet the elites don;t care. Hell the last thing on the list is "continental unity" when local regimes can't even do a decent job bargaining for or helping their people.
Lest any think this is merely my opinion, the book below gives the grim details with solid documentation.
Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by zarahan- aka Enrique Cardova:
quote:Originally posted by Narmerthoth: What good is history when readers fail to comprehend and learn, destined to repeat the same mistakes? In the presence of truth, they become reactionary and emotional, clinging to tribalism.
Sadly, it is a regrettable reality that new founded countries like Liberia failed because they allowed tribalism to survive and ultimately fall to foreign influence. To this day, hundreds of years later Africans still fail to comprehend why their continent has been lost. Even unified countries/continents barely won due to internal political conflicts and national traitors. In a disjointed continent full of fractured nations, resistance against an organized aggressor such as Europe is hopeless. If African can't stand against Europe, then they have absolutely no chance against the future expanding China.
I was hoping for an older, larger example of African unification attempts because even Mali failed to unite 25% or more of the continent. I have a feeling that long ago this has had to happen, but no records survive to reference.
But few have ever gotten continental unity. The US failed to unify North America- for Canada is independent. South America is not unified, Spain and Portugal both failed. China has failed to unify Asia. Greece failed. Rome came close but only for a while then it too failed.
Continental unification is not needed to do great things or to defeat an invader. If you have to wait for continental unity hell you will be waiting for millennia. As for tribalism, this has good and bad aspects. As noted above decentralized tribes often put up a longer, better fight than centralized kingdoms which sometimes folded quickly after a few defeats.
And how is Liberia a case of defeat? Who allowed tribalism? The Black American colonists were no paragons of virtue. In fact they sometimes oppressed the native African tribes and even allowed slavery on their territory. This is one of the reasons the Africans under Master Sgt Samuel Doe took over in that bloody coup. There was at least a century of native resentment at the Black American settlers.
Continental unity is not needed to resist aggression. How on earth you gonna get continental unity with places like Egypt and Algeria who more identify with the Arab world? In any conflict what Africans would need is regional collaboration, and they would need an outside power like China or Russia to supply advanced weaponry. There need be no central headquarters, or any continental body.
Unity is nice but don't fall into the "if we ain't totally unified we can't do anything" trap. If we have to wait for this state of perfect unity before anything gets done, then we will fail.
China is a unified continent. They did control and unify Korea for a while. Korea achieved unification, but is now fractured into north & south with the north being independent and the south being controlled by European influence. Spain, Portugal, Greece and Rome are declining nations and are stagnant. Neither of them can hope to become superpowers. Canada is irreverent, unless you want some potent weed and bad ale. Canada has no worthwhile, military, no significant manufacturing (The ones I know of are owned and operated by Asians or Indians) and no viable technology research. LOL, little Cuba's medical base is stronger than Canada's. Canada only exists because of the US and Britain.
The reason that North Africa is lost to Islamic Arabs in due to Africa lacking even regional solidarity. The early AU realized this and attempted to rectify, but since Africa is ultra fractured even this plan to strengthen itself through political unification was sabotaged and defeated. Who is today's AU leader? Mrs. Somethingorother? That a woman is now in chage tells you that the AU is dead and defeated.
Perfect unity?
there is no such thing. Even with unification the various tribal clans still exist. The difference is, now they share a common goal of protecting their continent, versus watching as their neighbour is invaded, destabilized and saying, "Well, it's not our problem" as the AU did when Libya was taken.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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quote:Originally posted by zarahan- aka Enrique Cardova: Re dealing with China, yes I would agree more collaboration is needed but the key is what's being done at the national level. ELites are giving away the store to China. Too often the Chinese bribe those at the top who mortgage the nations resources away, and shaft the ordinary African on the street. They need to be driving a lot harder bargain. It is sickening what is going on. In Namidia for example the ruling clique took Chinese money in exchange for issuing thousands of easy passports for the CHinese. Now Chinese merchants are popping up in even small rural towns, undercutting poor, small time African traders trying to eke out a living.
In Tanzania one can see Chinese hawking INDIVIDUAL CIGARETTES on the street, using their overseas connections to flood the market with cheapos, cutting out the small African vendor who used to earn a living with such things. Why the hell doe Africa need to import people selling single smokes on the corner? WHat? We ain't got people who can do that?
At higher levels, the BS continues for the Chinese are oft not transferring skills but insist on building numerous projects with Chinese labor AND material made in China- Chinese steel, cement, chemicals etc. Even low level jobs on some of these projects are filled with Chinese. Its bullshiit what is going on in some places, yet the elites don;t care. Hell the last thing on the list is "continental unity" when local regimes can't even do a decent job bargaining for or helping their people.
Lest any think this is merely my opinion, the book below gives the grim details with solid documentation.
Good book. Today, a million Chinese. Tomorrow, 500M. This is only possible because of the lack of continental wide policies. In Africa, if one country turns you down, you can just go next door to get a Yes. Africa has backdoors, side doors, windows, hidden trap doors and eager valets, all unguarded. The local elite never consider the needs of the continent or the impact individual national decisions will have on the continent. Why should they when their is no continental policy and they won't have to bear any responsibility for their actions? The standard M.O. for an African leaders is, get in power, consider the external bribes from Israel, US, Europe, China, take the highest offer and get rich. They seem to know nothing else. How many of these leaders have come to Mugabe's assistance?
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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posted
I was going to respond to Narmerthoth but it appears that Zarahan has done a much better job than I could possibly do.
Narmerthoth seems to have forgotton how huge Africa is, and the logistics involved in maintaining a single empire right across the whole continent. I don't suppose you are aware that the whole of Western Europe can fit into Zaire and that Europeans kept warring till 1945, not to mention the recent wars in the Balkans. Yet for some strange reason you expect Africa to be united. Empires are held together by mutual interest and alliances not by brute force.
The bigger empires were those in the Sahel and that was mainly due to easy of travel of flat mostly empty terrain.
Consider present day Zaire which straddles most of Central Africa, with its capital at far west end of the country. How does a centralized government maintain control over the vast terrain? Even the Colombian government can't bring FARC under control, and you expect a government in Kinshasa to maintain control at the centre of the country, let alone at the opposite ends of the country where the neighbouring states wield more power.
Other than South Africa which African country has the industrial resources necessary for creating and maintaining military power over a large area, independently, let alone foreign superpowers who will not permit something counter to their interests?
-------------------- The Habsburg Agenda - Defending Western Christian civilization Posts: 890 | From: London | Registered: Apr 2014
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Seems that Africans Are Learning that Shaolin Kung Fu At Dengfeng City
Zarahan, You know better! Yo sound like A Pharasee fanning flames against the People.
No One is Smiling at Ya'll.
Yo evangelist Jim Jones, when are you going to stop hiding and answer the question? Spamming the board isn't going to make people forget your brand of bitter Koolaid.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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posted
People, Understand that This computer, Seems to be doctoring the websites that I look for pics, and articles.
Seems that the search engines that I regualarly use for pics are either finding 1 or 2 pics, or pictures with the some negativity grouped with them.
Posts: 9651 | From: Reace and Love City. | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by The Habsburg Agenda: I was going to respond to Narmerthoth but it appears that Zarahan has done a much better job than I could possibly do.
Narmerthoth seems to have forgotton how huge Africa is, and the logistics involved in maintaining a single empire right across the whole continent. I don't suppose you are aware that the whole of Western Europe can fit into Zaire and that Europeans kept warring till 1945, not to mention the recent wars in the Balkans. Yet for some strange reason you expect Africa to be united. Empires are held together by mutual interest and alliances not by brute force.
The bigger empires were those in the Sahel and that was mainly due to easy of travel of flat mostly empty terrain.
Consider present day Zaire which straddles most of Central Africa, with its capital at far west end of the country. How does a centralized government maintain control over the vast terrain? Even the Colombian government can't bring FARC under control, and you expect a government in Kinshasa to maintain control at the centre of the country, let alone at the opposite ends of the country where the neighbouring states wield more power.
Other than South Africa which African country has the industrial resources necessary for creating and maintaining military power over a large area, independently, let alone foreign superpowers who will not permit something counter to their interests?
Euros state that the world has seven continents. Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.
How many are unified?
Africa is a very large land mass, but that is not the reason why it has not unified. Countries which have achieved unification underwent a tremendous number of internal tribal and clan wars killing many millions of it's citizens. Their leaders finally understood that these wars would continue as long as the country/continent lack consolidation. Unification immediately halted these small and numerous internal conflicts. Even Africa realized this and attempted to create the African Unity counsel. I can't or have yet to find the proof, but my guess is at some point in African history several attempts to unify had been made.
African unity after 50 years of OAU/AU: A dream deferred?
The result is the continuing state of disunity among African states. After 50 years journey African unity still remains a dream deferred.
The major challenges to be overcome include addressing
- the deficit in the ideological conviction of the political classes of the countries of the continent, - the lack of sustainable political commitment, and - the current dearth of political leadership on the continent - the development of the required socio-economic and physical infrastructure - absence of societal wide awareness of and support for the unification project
Steps to be taken include
- re-articulation and reaffirmation of the commitment for African unity as the surest means both for extricating the masses of the people from the prevailing socio-economic and political ills they find themselves in and for enabling Africa to participate in and contribute meaningfully for global development and prosperity as well as in the global quest for a just and humane world order - creating societal wide awareness of and constituency for African unity, - achieving the emergence of a coalition of countries with dedicated political leadership and commitment for pursuing the dream of African unity - outline a realistic and incentivised roadmap and strategy with benchmarks and realistic timelines as well as follow up mechanisms for integration - translating declarations and rhetoric of unity reflected in the plethora of commitments made under the AU into actions by contributing the required diplomatic and material resources to achieve the kind of integration and unification along the terms aptly put by Frantz Fanon:
The inter-African solidarity must be a solidarity of fact, a solidarity of action, a solidarity of concrete in men, in equipment, in money
Failure to achieve the above would leave countries of the continent divided by petty conflicts and struggles deferring the dream of unification for far too long. And as former South African President Thabo Mbeki warned ‘If this dream is deferred for much longer, surely, it will explode!’
posted
The Western International Bankers took over China with Mao Tse Tong communist revolution aka International Bankers revolution. The Bankers stole Russia from the Czar with the same kind of con monist revolution. Many of Mao advisers were Europeans.
Banker David Rockefeller and politician Henry Kissinger opened communist China to the global economy making China the factory of the world. Today the bankers are transferring their world reserve currency to China to replace the USA dollar.
The Smart International Bankers couldn't conquered Russia and China from the outside, they conquered those countries from the inside by using communist revolution. In the USA they took over the Central Bank.
Yo evangelist Jim Jones, when are you going to stop hiding and answer the question? Spamming the board isn't going to make people forget your brand of bitter Koolaid.
yo Warren Hart, Agent of divison,
What questions?
Looked at the other threads that you created.
Posts: 9651 | From: Reace and Love City. | Registered: Oct 2005
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Hehe.. Making excuses for a broken clock still gives you the wrong time. Many African leaders realized that AU is an necessity, but you tribal heads just don't get it.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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quote:Originally posted by mena7: The Western International Bankers took over China with Mao Tse Tong communist revolution aka International Bankers revolution. The Bankers stole Russia from the Czar with the same kind of con monist revolution. Many of Mao advisers were Europeans.
Banker David Rockefeller and politician Henry Kissinger opened communist China to the global economy making China the factory of the world. Today the bankers are transferring their world reserve currency to China to replace the USA dollar.
The Smart International Bankers couldn't conquered Russia and China from the outside, they conquered those countries from the inside by using communist revolution. In the USA they took over the Central Bank.
You probably don't remember that shortly after Obama took office he had to make an emergency flight over to China. It seems the Chinese were contemplating releasing their own Silver backed currency and making the US re-evaluate it's owed Chinese debt as well as the US T-bills it held to their new standard. No news was released on what Obama compromised to get the Chinese to postpone this currency, but had they not, the US dollar would have been worthless. The Chinese play the banking game better than the US, Europe and the international bankers.
quote:Originally posted by The Habsburg Agenda: I was going to respond to Narmerthoth but it appears that Zarahan has done a much better job than I could possibly do.
Narmerthoth seems to have forgotton how huge Africa is, and the logistics involved in maintaining a single empire right across the whole continent. I don't suppose you are aware that the whole of Western Europe can fit into Zaire and that Europeans kept warring till 1945, not to mention the recent wars in the Balkans. Yet for some strange reason you expect Africa to be united. Empires are held together by mutual interest and alliances not by brute force.
The bigger empires were those in the Sahel and that was mainly due to easy of travel of flat mostly empty terrain.
Consider present day Zaire which straddles most of Central Africa, with its capital at far west end of the country. How does a centralized government maintain control over the vast terrain? Even the Colombian government can't bring FARC under control, and you expect a government in Kinshasa to maintain control at the centre of the country, let alone at the opposite ends of the country where the neighbouring states wield more power.
Other than South Africa which African country has the industrial resources necessary for creating and maintaining military power over a large area, independently, let alone foreign superpowers who will not permit something counter to their interests?
Yeah true enough. I don;t see how continental unity in any meaningful sense can be achieved soon. Sure, you can get talk shops, like OAU, AU conferences, where elites meet, greet and talk, while the masses can't get enough running water or security on the street. But that is just a talk shop, not a meaningful network. The African Union, which replaced the old OAU seems just like that. The danger is that it will be captured and dominated behind the scenes by the European Union and/or the Asian bankstas, and string pullers.
National governments are so weak, you have to wonder what the future will bring.
African resources are more and more valuable as he world moves away from the paper money of the US dolla. The Chinese want real, hard commodities you can touch- gold, copper, oil etc. Hell in the same book above the author says India is buying up thousands of acres of farmland in Ethiopia and other places to grow hard comodities- rice, corn, cotton, coffee etc etc. Africa needs to drive a lot harder bargain for its resources. If they want land for crops insist on equipping thousands of small farmers with tools, seed, small generators, solar powered machinery, etc etc and other equipment as part of the deal. If the Chinese say they come to build roads insist on them training Africans to do the same when they leave, including tech schools complete with equip needed for a turnkey operation. If they need cement insist they manufacture it from local sources and so on. Hell now is the time to insist on these things before the resources run out. But too often some elites are lining their pockets with bribes while they give outsiders carte blanche. When will the cash be put on the street to benefit the small man?
Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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- re-articulation and reaffirmation of the commitment for African unity as the surest means both for extricating the masses of the people from the prevailing socio-economic and political ills they find themselves in and for enabling Africa to participate in and contribute meaningfully for global development and prosperity as well as in the global quest for a just and humane world order - creating societal wide awareness of and constituency for African unity, - achieving the emergence of a coalition of countries with dedicated political leadership and commitment for pursuing the dream of African unity - outline a realistic and incentivised roadmap and strategy with benchmarks and realistic timelines as well as follow up mechanisms for integration - translating declarations and rhetoric of unity reflected in the plethora of commitments made under the AU into actions by contributing the required diplomatic and material resources to achieve the kind of integration and unification along the terms aptly put by Frantz Fanon:
The inter-African solidarity must be a solidarity of fact, a solidarity of action, a solidarity of concrete in men, in equipment, in money
This is a reasonable package but given the weaknesses Hapsburg and others see above can it be done? ANother danger is creating big bureaucratic structures and more bureaucracy to the extent that it stifles productive use of the money. There are so many conferences, workshops, NGOs and organizations floating across Afric- all these people are getting paid - but when will real cash and power reach the man in the street?
Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Good one Child of the King, I wrote about these "islands of eden" at my blog awhile back. They and Pygmy-managed rainforests nurture eden's bounty.
quote:In fact they sometimes oppressed the native African tribes and even allowed slavery on their territory. This is one of the reasons the Africans under Master Sgt Samuel Doe took over in that bloody coup. There was at least a century of native resentment at the Black American settlers.
That Samuel Doe coup was CIA sponsored coup to co-op Tolbert's talk of Pan-African unity.
But there were indeed conflicts between the Americo-Liberians(called "Congos" in Liberia) and the other Liberians on quasi-racial and cultural grounds. The Liberia project was an America-sponsored project to the extent that the U.S. blacks who made the trip were heavily inculcated with the Christian religion and colour prejudices--into which they were acculturated during their sojourn in the U.S.
Yet today, the Liberian President, Helen Johnson Sirleaf is Americo Liberian.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Liberian President Helen Johnson Sirleaf being Americo Liberian and a woman is a great news. She should be more popular in North America and the Caribbean. Rich African Americans should make Liberia their investment and business center in Africa.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 29 October 1938) is the 24th and current President of Liberia. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d'état, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She placed second in the 1997 presidential election won by Charles Taylor. She won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006, and she was a successful candidate for re-election in 2011. Sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Sirleaf was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen. The women were recognized "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."[1]
Sirleaf was conferred the Indira Gandhi Prize by President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 12 September 2013.[2] As of 2014, she is listed as the 70th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
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quote:Originally posted by mena7: Liberian President Helen Johnson Sirleaf being Americo Liberian and a woman is a great news. She should be more popular in North America and the Caribbean. Rich African Americans should make Liberia their investment and business center in Africa.
No serious small investor will take that kind of financial risk when a month after the investment the country could destabilize due to another CIA ploy or lose their total invest because of a coup. Liberia's total GDP is only $50B. From what I understand the biggest investor in Liberia today is China.
I meet her daughter in the US a couple months back and she spoke about China wishing to establish stronger business relationships between China and African Americans, with Liberia being the middleman. She took some of my products so we'll see...
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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quote:Originally posted by mena7: Liberian President Helen Johnson Sirleaf being Americo Liberian and a woman is a great news. She should be more popular in North America and the Caribbean. Rich African Americans should make Liberia their investment and business center in Africa.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 29 October 1938) is the 24th and current President of Liberia. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d'état, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She placed second in the 1997 presidential election won by Charles Taylor. She won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006, and she was a successful candidate for re-election in 2011. Sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Sirleaf was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen. The women were recognized "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."[1]
Sirleaf was conferred the Indira Gandhi Prize by President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 12 September 2013.[2] As of 2014, she is listed as the 70th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes
I can't believe this lady is almost 80... guess that old saying must have a little merit to it.
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Yeah... Korea, China and Japan are NOT continents and were never united. They're just three countries in a region of Asia; East Asia. The three actually hated each(even still today) more so than the European.
The Japan is the only one that "repelled" European invasion due to industrializing.
Posts: 1891 | From: NY | Registered: Sep 2014
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If Europe and United states are continents, then China IS definitely a continent with 1.4 Billion residents. The Chinese as well as the Koreans did repel Europeans. Each recognized early what the Europeans were attempting to do by infiltrating their people using Christianity to corrupt their societies. They also recognized and reacted to the flood of drugs (opium) the Dutch flooded their countries with to weaken their infrastructures.
The Japanese are the youngest nation of the three and their warrior culture led them to identify with Europeans and their violent natures.
Europeans held presence in Korea for a much shorter period than the Chinese, who ruled over Korea for a brief period of time before the Koreans developed superior weaponry and their own writing system which enabled them to break the yoke of China's hold. Korea was often referred to as "little China", not because of Chinese control so much as the high level of civilization Korea developed independent of China.
Europeans attempted to steal slaves from Asian as they did in Africa, but they did so using internal traitors and phony employment contracts. With the help of corrupt Asian politicians and scholars, Europe was able to trick Chinese and Koreans into indebted slavery conditions and these Chinese were used by the US to build the early rail-roads.
The benefit of unification is clearly shown in this instance, because once Central command found out about these deceptions, they quickly acted on it by identifying, capturing, and executing the responsible traitors. African could not perform similarly, because they were disjointed with no Central command.
However, unlike African, Asians countries were unified and therefore, showing love to ALL their people, each nation called for unified solidarity for resisting the European attacks. No where near millions of people were stolen from Asia due to this nationalistic soladarity front.
Had Africa had similar unification, each tribe or nation would not have been able to make separate deals with Europeans for slave bargaining. With the absence of a unified continent and continental central command in Africa, it made it much easier for them to strike separate deals with the leaders of isolated states/Tribes and to play each state against the other. Due to Africa still being disjointed, these same European tricks and strategies work as well against Africa as they always did. Now I fear it's much too late fro Africa to unify even if they wanted to.
The Japanese are different in that they aligned themselves with the European countries as they allied with Nazi Germany.
Contrary to what you posted, China, Korea and Japan do not HATE one another. In fact, it was the Chinese in the north who passed their civilization down to the Koreans. For a long period of time, Korea using Chinese writing and policies in their government. Likewise, it was the Koreans who passed on civilization to the Japanese when they were just a poor barbaric group of islands. All three share a long history with major exchanges of culture, for example, Buddhism flowed from China to Korea to Japan as well as Taoism. Today, North Korea still maintains social and political ties with China, while south Korea as deeper ties to the west.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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Your first sentence makes it hard for anyone to further take your argument seriously. No the United States is NOT a continent. So comparing it to China to see if China is a continent is moot. While Europe is technically not a contient, it(and India) actually has characteristics that actually makes it a continent unlike China.
Just because China has billion population does not make it a continent. China doesn't even have anything that separates it from the rest of Asia. At least Europe has the Ural and Caucasus mountains forming the line of demarcation between Europe and Asia.
Posts: 1891 | From: NY | Registered: Sep 2014
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OK. I'll correct and change the thread title to;
Only unified countries...blah, blah, blah
Does that change anything about Africa being a loose collection of dysfunctional tribal states as China was prior to 300 BC?
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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Fear of Blacks Triggered 1776 War of Independence
White settlers turned against the their mother country partly in fear that the British Crown would put guns in the hands of Blacks, according to Dr. Gerald Horne, chairman of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston and author of more than 30 books, including The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America.
In 1775, the British colonial governor of Virginia established an “Ethiopian Regiment” to counter rebellious white settlers. “One of the factors that caused formerly patriotic British subjects to revolt against British rule was this ‘Black scare’ that, I argue, led to the formation of the unified United States of America,” said Dr. Horne, in a lecture at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
-------------------- Selenium gives real life and true reality Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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"Fear of Blacks Triggered 1776 War of Independence"
...very good....
Dont forget the Somerset Case as well contributing to the fear,
Somerset v Stewart
"Somerset v Stewart (1772) a famous judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, which held that chattel slavery was unsupported by the common law in England and Wales, although the position elsewhere in the British Empire was left ambiguous. Lord Mansfield decided that:
"The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law [ statute ], which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasions, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.[1]"
Slavery had never been authorised by statute in England and Wales, and Lord Mansfield's decision found it also unsupported in common law.
Historians Alfred W. and Ruth G. Blumrosen suggest that this case increased support of the Southern colonies for independence, as they particularly wanted to protect slavery" (wiki)......
and I am sure the Northern shipping interests weren't too enthused either ....
the prospect of free Blacks and no Slavery .....was too much to bear...
-------------------- Keldal Posts: 2818 | From: new york | Registered: Apr 2014
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quote:Originally posted by BlessedbyHorus: Yeah... Korea, China and Japan are NOT continents and were never united. They're just three countries in a region of Asia; East Asia. The three actually hated each(even still today) more so than the European.
The Japan is the only one that "repelled" European invasion due to industrializing.
Wrong. There were several periods in their histories when China ruled them all and received tribune from them all as proof. During these periods, both Korean and Japanese governments and leaders bowed and pledged their loyalties to the Chinese emperors.
Let's see from a cultural standpoint, at one time the Chinese culture flowed south leading to Korea using Chinese language and characters, practised Chinese Buddhism and then Chinese Confucian government, with complete mimicking of Chinese noble/aristocrat governing structure, and even stoped using their hands to eat in exchange for Chinese chop sticks. Likewise, the Japanese were under Chinese authority also. China used Korea to maintain and police the Japanese.
At various times in it's ancient history China did in fact unify the continent. Chinese culture also propagated north into Mongolia with the same cultural exchange of history, language, writings and rituals during the Song, Han and Tang dynasties.
This unification via civilizing the natives is not unlike the exchange Egypt promoted between Khmt and various parts of Africa and the middle-east which probably is the closest Africa has ever come to being unified.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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quote:Originally posted by BlessedbyHorus: Yeah... Korea, China and Japan are NOT continents and were never united. They're just three countries in a region of Asia; East Asia. The three actually hated each(even still today) more so than the European.
The Japan is the only one that "repelled" European invasion due to industrializing.
Wrong.
There were several periods in their histories when China ruled them all and received tribune from them all as proof. During these periods, both Korean (Goguryeo) and Japanese governments and leaders bowed and pledged their loyalties to the Chinese emperors.
Let's see from a cultural standpoint, at one time the Chinese culture flowed south leading to Korea using Chinese language and characters, practised Chinese Buddhism and then Chinese Confucian government, with complete mimicking of Chinese noble/aristocrat governing structure, and even stoped using their hands to eat in exchange for Chinese chop sticks. Likewise, the Japanese were under Chinese authority also. China used Korea to maintain and police the Japanese.
At various times in it's ancient history China did in fact unify the continent. Chinese culture also propagated north into Mongolia with the same cultural exchange of history, language, writings and rituals during the Song, Han and Tang dynasties.
This unification via civilizing the natives is not unlike the exchange Egypt promoted between Khmt and various parts of Africa and the middle-east which probably is the closest Africa has ever come to being unified.
Ironically, much later the least and last of the three Asian countries, Japan, would end up controlling portions of both China and Korea.
Many reasons why Chinese culture became irresistibly pervasive.
Partial China/Korea/Japan/Europe time-line
- 2500BC: Chinese invent ink, tea and silk - 700 BC: the Chinese invent gunpowder - 600BC: Confucius - 550BC: Taoism/Daoism - 121BC: Chinese invent the magic lantern - 106BC: the Silk Road is inaugurated (a treaty between Chinese emperor Wu-Ti/Wu Di and Parthian king Mithridates II) - 68 AD: Buddhism is introduced in China - 190DA: the Chinese invent the abacus - 372: Buddhism is introduced from China into the kingdom of Koguryo (Korea) - 527: the Korean kingdom of Paekche builds the Buddhist temple Taetong-sa in the capital Ungjin (Kongju) - 538: Korean kingdom of Paekche dispatches a delegation to introduce Buddhism to the Japanese emperor - 553: Korean kingdom of Silla builds the Buddhist temple Hwangnyong-sa in the capital Kumsong (Kyongju) - 589: The Sui re-unify China - 602: Tibet is unified under Namri Songtsen - 630: The Tang conquer the Eastern Turks - 648: The Tang conquer the Western Turks - 650: the Tang dynasty extends the boundaries of China west into Afghanistan, north into Siberia, east into Korea and south into Vietnam, golden age of art and literature (ideal of the universal man, combining the qualities of scholar, poet, painter, statesman) - 650: Acupuncture is invented in China -668: Silla, with the help of the Tang, conquers Koguryo and Paekche, thereby uniting the whole of Korea, with capital in Kyongju, but becomes a vassal of the Tang - 713: The first ambassador from the Islamic caliphate visits the emperor of China - 714: Guangzhou port opens to Muslim traders - 811: "Flying money" (paper money) is introduced in China to pay for goods in distant places - 932: Chinese official Fang Tao commissions block printing of the 130 vlumes of the Confucian classics - 936: Wang Kon unifies Korea and moves the capital north to Songdo (Kaesong) - 979: The Song dynasty under Tai Tsung re-unifies China - 1041: China's Bi Sheng invents the printing press with movable type - 1368: the Ming dynasty is founded by a Chinese peasant and former Buddhist monk turned rebel, Zhu Yuanzhang/ Chu Yuanchang/ Hongwu, under whose leadership China regains independence from the Mongols - 1392: end of the Goryeo dynasty in Korea and beginning of the Joseon dynasty - 1400: Taejong becomes emperor of Korea - 1405: Zheng He/ Cheng Ho (a former Muslim slave) sails west with a fleet of 300 ships, invading Sumatra and Ceylon and eventually reaching the coast of Africa - 1418: Taejong of Korea dies and is succeeded by Sejong (The Sage King) - 1446: Korean king Sejong enacts the official Korean alphabet Hangui of 14 consonants and ten vowels which replaces Chinese speech and character use in Korea - 1557: Portugal establishes a trading post in Macao (first European settlement in the Far East) - 1573: The Mongol emperor invites the Dalai Lama of Tibet to the Mongol capital of Altan Khan and begins conversion of Mongolia to Buddhism - 1583: Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci arrives in China - 1592: Japan invades Korea and destroys dozens of temples - 1598: China expels the Japanese from Korea - 1600: the Chinese empire is the largest nation in the world - 1626: Spain begins colonizing Formosa/Taiwan - 1636: Qing emperor Hong Taiji changes the name of his people from Jurchen to Manchu ("pure") - 1637: the Manchus invade Korea and Korea becomes a vassal state of the Manchus - 1642: Holland seizes Formosa/Taiwan from Spain - 1661: Koxinga expels the Dutch from Formosa/Taiwan - 1689: China signs a border treaty with Russia (first bilateral agreement with a European power), the treaty of Nerchinsk, to settle the border between Russian Siberia and Chinese Manchuria, declaring Outer Mongolia a neutral land (partition of the steppe world between Russia and China) - 1708: Jesuit missionaries draw the first accurate map of China - 1715: East India Company opens offices in Guangzhou - 1727: Russia and China sign the treaty of Kyakhta, defining their border and granting Russia a trading post in Kyakhta - 1729: the emperor issues a decree banning the sale of opium - 1785: Korea bans Christianity because it disapproves of ancestor worship - 1800: There are 150,000 catholics in China - 1801: China's population is 295 million - 1817: Britain exports 275 tons of opium to China - 1839: The imperial emissary Lin Zexu arrests 1,700 Chinese opium dealers in Guangzhou, seizes tons of opium from foreign traders and writes a letter to Queen Victoria of Britain urging her to end the opium trade, and in response the British start the "Opium War" - 1842: The British seize Shanghai - 1842: under the Treaty of Nanjing, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to Britain - Jul 1844: The Treaty of Wangxia between China and the USA opens five Chinese ports to the USA - 1851: the Taiping rebels, led by a village teacher, Hong Xiuquan, stage an anti-Manchu rebellion that will last 14 years (30 million people killed) - 1856: China is attacked by British and French forces - 1860: British and French troops loot Beijing - 1865: British investors form the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank - 1870: There are 400,000 catholics in China - 1870: Chinese mobs massacre French missionaries in Tianjin/ Tientsin - 1873: Britain exports 6250 tons of opium to China - 1882: China sends troops to defend the Korean government and Japan sends troops to defend its delegation after a mob attacks it - 1882: Christian missionaries are admitted in Korea - 1894: China sends troops into Korea and Japan invades China (first sino-japanese war) - 1895: Japan defeats China and China is forced to cede Taiwan and recognize Japanese sovereignity over Korea at the treaty of Shimonoseki - 1895: Britain controls two thirds of Chinese foreign trade - 1898: The anti-Confucian "Hundred Days' Reform", launched by emperor Guang Hsu/Guang Xu to modernize China and appease Kang Yuwei, fails when the mother of the emperor, Tsu Hsi/Ci Xi, has him arrested and confined in the Forbidden City, while Kang flees to Japan - 1900: the anti-western Boxer (Yihetuan) rebellion, supported by the Qing emperor but not by the regional governors of Canton (Li Hongzhang), Wuhan (Zhang Zhidong), Nanjing and Shantung, is crushed by foreign troops (Russia, Britain, France, Japan, USA) and empress Tsu Hsi flees to the mountains - 1900: China's population is 467 million - 1905: the Confucian system of examination is abolished - 1905: After Japan defeats Russian, Russia withdraws from Manchuria, loses Sakhalin, and recognizes a Japanese protectorate over Korea (treaty of Portsmouth), the first time that a non-European country defeats a European power - 1907: Britain and Russia negotiate the status of Persia, Tibet and Afghanistan - 1907: Japan forces the Korean emperor to abdicate and real power is seized by Ito Hirobumi - 1910: Japan annexes Korea and thereby terminates the Choson dynasty after more than five centuries of rule - 1910: There are 200,000 Christians in Korea - Apr 1911: Sheng borrows money from a consortium of French, British, German and USA banks to develop railways - Jun 1912: Russian and Japanese banks join the consortium of French, British, German and USA banks - 1913: Song's KMT wins the majority of votes but Song is assassinated and Sun flees the country, while power is seized by the authoritarian Shikai Yuan (11 million die) - Jul 1914: Sun founds the "Chinese Revolutionary Party" - 1917: The USA accounts for 67% of the world's oil output - Aug 1917: China joins World War I on the side of Britain, France, Japan and the USA, the first time ever that Chinese soldiers walk into another continent - 1922: at the Washington Conference with Britain and the USA, Japan accepts to return disputed territories to China - November 1931: Mao proclaims the Chinese Republic of Soviets - Dec 1937: Japan captures Nanjing (350,000 Chinese are killed and 100,000 women are raped during the "rape of Nanking") - 1938: Japan opens the first wartime facility for "sexual comfort" in Nanjing - 1938: Lee Byung-chull founds the trading company Samsung in South Korea - 1938: Japan installs five puppet regimes in China (Manchukuo, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Nanjing, Taiwan) - 1941: Japan attacks the USA that enters the war on the side of the KMT - 1945: World War II ends and Japan is forced to retreat (20 million Chinese dead) - August 1945: at the end of World War II the Korean peninsula is occupied by the Soviet Union (north) and the USA (south) - January 1946: The leader of North Korean opposition, Cho Man Sik, is arrested (and executed a few months later), the beginning of purges in North Korea that will lead to more than 100,000 executions and the death of 1.5 million people in concentration camps until 1994 - 1946: Civil war between Chiang and Mao continues, with Chiang (southern China and northern cities) helped by the USA and Mao (northern countryside) helped by the Soviet Union - 1946: During the "agrarian revolution" of 1946-52 the communists execute between 2 and 5 million landowners who collaborated with Japan and send six million to labor camps - 1949: Chiang and his KMT government flee to Taiwan while Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China (1.2 million have died in three years) - June 1950: communist North Korea (with approval from Stalin) attacks capitalist South Korea, but the invasion fails after USA intervention - July 1950: Mao orders the persecution of "counter-revolutionaries" of the cities, which causes the deaths of 710,000 people and the deportation of 2.5 million people to "reeducation camps" - October 1950: Chinese troops enter Korea to help North Korea - 1952: Mao orders the persecution of landlords which causes the deaths of about one million people - 1953: The communist party launches the first five-year plan with the aims of industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, and political centralization - July 1953: Korea is permanently partitioned across the DMV (54 thousand USA soldiers, 415 thousand South Koreans including 58 thousand soldiers, 400 thousand Chinese soldiers, two million North Koreans have died including 520 thousand soldiers) - 1953: the population of mainland (communist) China is 583 million - December 1957: Mao launches the "Great Leap Forward" (mass mobilization and collectivization of the farms to increase crop production and steel production - 1959: 38 million people starve to death because of the 1959-62 famine caused by the "Great Leap Forward" (the population of Communist China declined by 4.5%) - July 1959: Peng Dehuai criticizes Mao's "Great Leap Forward" - May 1961: General Park Chung-hee stages a coup in South Korea at a time when half of the country's GDP is USA aid - 1962: Mao breaks with the Soviet Union - Oct 1964: Communist China becomes the fifth nuclear power, the first one in Asia - Feb 1971: USA president Richard Nixon visits Communist China - 1973: Thousands of tons of precious Tibetan sculptures have been melted by Chinese foundries, and thousands of gold and silver relics have been transported to Beijing - 1975: Zhao Ziyang pioneers capitalism in Sichuan province of mainland China - 1978: Japan and China sign a peace treaty - Dec 1978: The Plenum of the 11th Party Congress ushers in capitalist-style economic reform, as Hua Guofeng relinquishes power to Deng Xiaoping, creating 12 state companies to control imports and exports and "Special Economic Zones" in southern China to imitate Singapore's success - Jan 1979: Mainland China normalizes relations with the USA - 1979: The government of mainland China introduces the one-child policy in cities to reduce population growth - 1980: The USA grants mainland China most-favored-nation status, i.e. access to US investors, technology and market - 1980: The population of China is one billion. - 1981: Deng Xiaoping seizes power and launches pseudo-capitalistic economic reforms - October 1984: Mainland China enacts reforms that limit the interference of government officials in the management of companies - 1984: Liu Chuanzhi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences founds a privately-run but state-owned company, Legend (later Lenovo), to sell IBM's personal computers in China - 1985: The growth rate in mainland China was 9.4% between 1978 and 1995 - October 1987: Another insurrection is Tibet is crushed by the Chinese, and the government establishes a special school in Beijing to educate the reincarnate Tibetan lamas - 1990: China's Lenovo introduces its first homemade computer when the market is dominated by IBM, HP and Compaq - 1991: Communist China joins the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) - 1994: Communist China's gross domestic product grows at an average annual rate of about 10%, the highest in the world, between 1994 and 2000 - 1996: South Korean conglomerate Samsung builds a factory in Texas, one of the largest foreign investments in the history of the USA - 1997: Britain cedes Hong Kong back to Communist China, and Jiang Zemin appoints Tung Chee-hwa as chief executive of the city - 1997: Lenovo passes IBM to become China's main vendor of personal computers - 1998: The growth rate in mainland China was 11.2% between 1990 and 1998 - 1998: Pakistan provides North Korea with nuclear technology in exchange for missile technology - Dec 1999: Portugal returns Macau to China - 2002: South Korea's Samsung is the second semiconductor manufacturer in the world after Intel - 2002: Japan and South Korea combined deliver 75% of the world's shipbuilding - 2002: A magnetic levitation train is inaugurated in Shanghai, the fastest train in the world - 2002: North Korea admits that is developing nuclear weapons in violation of a treaty with the USA - 2003: Roh Moo-hyun wins the election in South Korea with a program that calls for US withdrawal and negotiations with North Korea - 2003: Communist China's "Three Gorges Dam" on the Yangtze (2.3 km long and 185 meters tall), the world's largest dam, becomes operational - 2003: Communist China's economy grows 9.1% in 2003 - 2004: Russia and China settle all border disputes, mostly favoring China - 2005: North Korea announces that it has nuclear weapons and pulls out of nuclear talks - 2005: Mainland China's trade surplus triples in one year to a record $102 billion, and mainland China becomes the world's third-largest foreign trader after the United States and Germany with trade of $1.4 trillion, as well as second only to Japan for foreign currency reserves ($794 billion) - 2005: Mainland China becomes the fourth world economy after the USA, Japan and Germany - 2006: North Korea tests missiles, angering the USA, Japan and South Korea - 2007: China overtakes all European countries and becomes the third economic power after USA and Japan - 2007: Mainland China overtakes the USA to become the world's second largest exporter (after Germany) and overtakes Canada to become the main exporter to the USA - 2007: Mainland China's exports to Europe surpass mainland China's exports to the USA - 2007: Mainland China's GDP growth rate peaks at 14% - december 2008: Mainland China holds an estimated $1 trillion in USA government debt - 2009: The government of mainland China injects a $4 trillion stimulus package into the economy to offset the international financial crisis - mar 2009: Bank of China's governor Zhou Xiaochuan proposes that international trade be based on a global currency instead of the dollar - may 2009: Mainland China buys $22 billion worth of Australian mining operations - jul 2009: fearing an aging population, Shanghai repels the one-child only policy - 2009: Mainland China's Inner Mongolia has become the country's largest producer of coal and the world's largest producer of rare earths - Sep 2010: Mainland China produces 95% of the rare earths of the world and stops shipments to Japan over a territorial dispute - Dec 2010: The first study to include Chinese students finds that Chinese students outperform the rest of the world in Science, Reading and Math - Dec 2010: Mainland China (GDP of $5.75 trillion) overtakes Japan (GDP of $5.39 trillion) as the world's second largest economy after the USA, although mainland China's GDP per head ($4,500) is only 11% of Japan's ($40,000) - 2010: The European Union becomes mainland China's biggest export market, while the USA remains the European Union's biggest export market - 2010: The USA has become mainland China's second-largest export market and mainland China has become the USA's third-largest export market and the fastest-growing one - 2010: Mainland China holds about $1.6 trillion in Treasury bonds of the USA - 2011: The USA has 413 billionaires, mainland China has 115 billionaires, Russia 101, India 55, Germany 52, Britain 32, Brazil 30, and Japan 26 - 2011: The USA spends $739bn in defense while China spends $90bn - Dec 2012: China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, linking Beijing with Guangzhou - Jun 2014: China restricts Islamic fasting for anyone employed in government - Nov 2014: Russia and China sign a colossal oil and gas deal, using the Chinese yuan as the trading currency - Jun 2015: China inaugurates the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a rival to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank funded by 50 countries including Britain, Germany, Australia and South Korea but not Japan nor the USA - 2015: China's has become the main importer of Middle Eastern oil (51% of its oil imports, 16% from Saudi Arabia alone) -
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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Examining the above cases of invade & conquest, if you review the details of each government, those with the strongest and unified countries are the ones who survived. The Chinese and Korean governments had decayed to the point of becoming decadent, jaded and corrupt with multiple decentralized corruption points throughout their regions. Japan was actually able to bribe Korean and Chinese Generals in charge of tens of thousands of troops to not fight as the Japanese made their way to the Korean capital, and further into China.
Government Corruption by the monarch's ministers became so rotten in both China and Korea that each country's citizens were no more than forced slave labor with their labours being taxed at up to 80% while in Korea, Land was mostly owners by ministers and nobles and worked by peasants who earned only a few pounds of rice per month.
The conditions in both countries became so bad that hundreds of thousands of common citizens died from starvation. In china, many families were forced to sell their children as slaves, and girls to brothels. Many starving families even ate their own young children.
Entropy is the natural course of all governments with the act of renewal being, periodic revolution.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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posted
Great analysis of the role of power and greed in the fall of nations. The same can be said of African and Black Native American nations.
These Blacks often sided with European powers against other Black nations in Africa and North America (i.e., Creek vs. Jamasee and Choctaw), and ultimately were destroyed by the very Europeans they had helped to exterminate African and Black Native American nations.
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-------------------- C. A. Winters Posts: 13012 | From: Chicago | Registered: Jan 2006
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