In 1945, as the world emerged from the ashes of the Second World War, little did people know that it was about to be engulfed by a new wave of conflict, destruction, and mass migration. A new wave that historians today call the wars of decolonization (or national liberation). The imperial governments that opposed them at the time steadfastly refused to call them wars, opting for terms like “uprising,” “rebellion,” “insurgency,” and “emergency.” For about three decades, the efforts of various special interest groups led to the dissolution of several European intercontinental empires and the creation of nation-states all around the globe. But what do we mean by special interest groups and how have they concretely affected the decolonization process?

Decolonization, a Complex Process

Obvious as it may seem, decolonization is the process of reversing colonization, more accurately, the political, economic, and cultural undoing of colonialism. 20th-century decolonization is usually framed between two dates: 1945, marking the end of the Second World War, and 1975, the year of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal and the dissolution of the Portuguese Empire. However, its actual temporal boundaries are more unclear.

Colonialism rarely ends with the departure of the colonial authorities from a colonized country. The internalized psychological and cultural effects of colonialism linger on, as generations of the colonized try to shake off the negative and stereotypical self-understandings imposed on them by decades (and sometimes centuries) of colonialism to create what Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) calls the “new” self.

Decolonization, he writes in The Wretched of the Earth (1961), “… never takes place unnoticed, for it influences individuals and modifies them fundamentally. It transforms spectators crushed with their inessentiality into privileged actors, with the grandiose glare of history’s floodlights upon them. It brings a natural rhythm into existence, introduced by new men, and with it a new language and a new humanity. Decolonization is the veritable creation of new men.”

In some countries, independence was achieved peacefully through negotiations, treaties, demonstrations, mass strikes, and boycotts. Ghana, for example, was the first African colony to achieve independence from Great Britain in 1957 through non-violent means. That was also the case in other African countries, such as Botswana and Zambia.

In many former colonies, however, the colonial authorities refused to relinquish power and accept the transition initiated by local leaders. Various nationalist movements in two of Portugal’s most important colonies, Mozambique and Angola, waged a guerrilla campaign against Portuguese forces for more than a decade before the fall of the Portuguese Empire in 1975. Thousands of people paid with their lives for the blind determination of the French, Portuguese, and British governments to deny them self-determination. Thousands more died in the political instability that followed decolonization, as in Angola, which was plunged into one of the deadliest wars in the history of the African continent, a 26-year-long war that, it could be argued, was the direct result of decades of colonial rule.

What Do We Mean by Special Interest Groups?

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are formally organized associations of people who share the same goals, demands, and concerns. These groups can be made up of specialized individuals or organizations and companies, ranging from Indigenous and non-Indigenous environmental organizations (such as the World Rainforest Movement, which protects and advances the claims of forest-dependent communities in the Global South, or Amazon Watch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the Brazilian rainforest) to labor organizations (such as the Irish Farmers’ Association, founded in 1955, which represents the rights and demands of Irish farmers) and civil rights groups (such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the United States).

SIGs also include religious organizations such as the American Jewish Committee (AJC), LGBTQ-rights groups, and international human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

What unites these diverse groups is their determination to influence and/or change government policy on a particular issue. They do so in a variety of ways, from lobbying to mass strikes, from political negotiations to (violent and non-violent) demonstrations. Special Interest Groups can exist at all levels: local, provincial, national, and international. Some are defined as single-issue groups because they promote and raise awareness on a single issue, while others are more broadly based. Sometimes their actions enjoy general public support, particularly in democratic parliamentary systems.

Others, such as LGBTQ-rights groups operating in authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes, often face discrimination and opposition from both an unsympathetic public and the government and may have to operate unofficially and in secret to protect the physical well-being of their members.

Empowerment Through Education

In many museums across Canada, visitors are now greeted by explanatory panels written not only in English and French (as in Québec), but also in the Indigenous languages spoken by the local Indigenous groups. Many museums in North America and Australia include opening messages on their websites to acknowledge the Custodians of the lands on which they were built.

For example, the Western Australia Museum and the State Library of Western Australia recognize the strength and culture of the Nyoongar Whadjuk people, while the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia  “acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land and waters upon which the MCA stands.” In Toronto, Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) acknowledges that it operates on “land that is Michi Saagig Nishnawbe territory,” which over time has also been occupied by “other Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat confederacies.”

One Way Ticket to Hell, a painting by Aboriginal artist Aunty Fay Moseley remembering the tragedy of the Stolen Generations in Australia, 2012-2020. Source: Australian Museum

The McCord Steward Museum in Montréal/Tiohtiá:ke not only acknowledges that its building “sits on land used and occupied by Indigenous peoples for millennia that has never been ceded by treaty,” but also that “colonialism has had devastating consequences on First Peoples.” Thousands of miles to the west, the Manitoba Museum recognizes that “We are on Treaty No.1 land, the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininíwak, and Michif,” and that these “lands, water, and waterways are the unceded territories of the Dakota, and the homeland of the Red River Métis Nation.” The list goes on.

These are the most visible results of decades of efforts by Indigenous anti-colonial movements and organizations across North America to raise awareness of the continuing impact of colonialism on their lives and their determination to ensure the revival of their ancestral languages and cultures.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᐱᕇᑦ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ) are just a few of the many political organizations created by First Nations across what is now Canada to defend their rights.

By organizing protests, hosting powwows (most of which are open to non-Indigenous audiences), and using their ancestral languages in books and music alongside European languages, Indigenous activists, politicians, and artists continue to prioritize education as a tool for revitalization, self-determination, and, ultimately, empowerment. But Canada’s First Nations are not alone.

In Australia, the Kimberly Land Council (KLC) has been “working with Aboriginal people to secure native title recognition, conduct conservation and land management activities and develop cultural business enterprises” for over 40 years, since it was established at Noonkanbah Station, on the Fitzroy River in the south-central Kimberley region of Western Australia, in May 1978.

In Colombia, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia) has been fighting since 1982 to defend the autonomy, history, and culture of Indigenous Colombians, the country’s Indigenous peoples. Similar peaceful organizations exist throughout Central and South America, in Peru, Mexico, and Ecuador, as well as in Africa.

Fostering and Celebrating a Pan-African Identity

In December 1958, the All-African People’s Conference (AAPC) galvanized the struggle of African colonies against British (as well as Portuguese and French) colonialism. Held in Accra, Ghana, it lasted six days, from December 8 to 13, 1958, and was the first major pan-African conference to bring together hundreds of leaders of various groups, from youth organizations to nationalist movements, directly on African soil, away from the centers of European power.

The location was highly symbolic. Under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), the first president of Ghana and father of the influential Ghanaian activist and politician Samia Nkrumah, Ghana became the first African colony to gain independence from Great Britain on March 6, 1957. Nkrumah’s opening speech set the tone for the conference as “a gathering of Africans speaking for Africa and Africans.”

Before that, Africans had “had Pan-African Congresses before — in fact, five of them — but all of these, by force of circumstances, were carried on outside Africa and under much difficulty.”

The 1945 Pan-African Congress, for example, organized “and made up largely of those outside Africa who had the cause of African freedom at heart,” had been held in Manchester, on British soil.

By the late 1950s, however, circumstances had changed. The purpose of the 1958 Conference was to promote solidarity and cooperation between colonized nations (and diaspora communities), primarily in Africa, but ideally throughout the world. As Nkrumah said in his opening speech, “If we are to attain the major objective to which we are all committed — the total liberation of Africa — then it is necessary to bury our political hatchets in the interest of Africa’s supreme need.”

At the conference, in a powerful celebration of African identity, Nkrumah urged his fellow African leaders and citizens not to be afraid to proclaim their right to self-determination openly and freely to the world, to “make no apology to anyone” for seeking self-determination and freedom.

By encouraging grassroots participation and involving civil society in the anti-colonial struggle, the 1958 Conference also emphasized the importance of Pan-Africanism in achieving independence. It also served to reinforce the belief that the freedom of an African nation was inextricably linked to the freedom of the African continent as a whole, therefore creating and nurturing a cohesive, all-encompassing anti-colonial narrative.

The cause that African nations are called to embrace, Nkrumah said in his opening speech, “is a noble and irresistible Cause. As long as we remain true to that Cause — the Cause of national freedom and independence — we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Paramilitary Groups or Special Interest Groups?

Paramilitary groups, like Special Interest Groups, are organizations made up of individuals who are committed to a cause and have a particular political and/or religious agenda. This has led some to include paramilitary groups in the category of SIGs, but it is not that simple. What distinguishes paramilitary organizations from SIGs are the methods the former use to achieve their goals.

Paramilitary groups typically operate outside the law and outside the normal military framework. Their heavily armed members use force, coercion, and violence, both physical and psychological, to achieve their goals and punish or kill anyone who does not share their aims or prevents them from achieving them. In many cases, they target members of the police, as well as public and private property. On the other hand, Special Interest Groups are inherently non-violent and determined to abide by the law.

Some paramilitary groups are politically motivated, such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), while others, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, pursue an agenda rooted in religion and animated by the belief that state and religion should go hand in hand. Some organizations, such as the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM), in Chile, operate on the borderline between violence and non-violence.

CAM’s actions have a very clear, anti-colonial aim: to regain control of the ancestral lands of the Mapuche, the indigenous people of south-central Chile and south-west Argentina, which were seized during the so-called Pacification of Araucanía, and to protect them from the invasive and destructive power of mining and logging companies. These lands are now owned by landowners and corporations. To this end, they have allegedly often resorted to arson attacks and sabotage against the companies’ machinery and property.

Some paramilitary groups operate in the context of civil war. This was the case with the IRA and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), two of the various paramilitary groups active in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. While Irish Nationalists in the IRA sought Irish unity and the withdrawal of British forces from the island of Ireland, the UVF and its members, Loyalist Protestants, fought to maintain Northern Ireland’s status within the United Kingdom. While paramilitary groups can’t be categorized as special interest groups because of their reliance on violence, physical and psychological, they share with SIGs a determination to champion a cause, in some cases directly linked to decolonization.

From Africa to Chile, from Australia to North America, the actions of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have contributed to the dissolution of European empires and the creation (sometimes peacefully, sometimes violently) of nation-states around the world. The process historians call decolonization continues in many countries today, albeit in different ways.

When visitors enter a museum and have the opportunity to read explanatory panels in English alongside the language of the indigenous group on whose land the museum was built, they are engaging in a form of decolonization, decolonization through education and culture. Decolonization continues in the form of sabotage, demonstrations, boycotts, and legal battles, such as those many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have waged since the 1970s to have their connection to their ancestral lands officially recognized.

Historians and scholars frequently debate which imperial house in Ancient China held the most influence in the history of East Asia, and the debate often leads to a discussion regarding the Tang Dynasty and the Han Dynasty. Understandably, the Tang Dynasty which ruled the region from 618 AD to 907 AD is widely regarded as the golden age of Chinese civilization. However, the Han Dynasty also had many unique accomplishments.

Why the Han Dynasty Is in the Discussion

The Han Dynasty existed from 206 BC to 220 AD, lasting for over four centuries. According to historical records, it established the foundational culture of the nation to the point that the majority ethnic group in China today is still referred to as the Han. Another major reason for its historical significance was its vastness. The Han Empire rivaled Rome in terms of sheer size and population.

According to a census undertaken in 2 AD, the empire had a recorded population of about 60 million people. Furthermore, the Han Dynasty is credited with formally establishing the Silk Road which connected Africa, Europe, and Asia for centuries, through trade.

The Rise of the Tang Empire

The Tang Empire emerged after the short-livedSui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Tang empire controlled a vast territory that extended deep into Central Asia, covering approximately 4.13 million square miles. Today, it is credited for maintaining one of the most formidable militaries in the ancient world and having one of the richest cultures of its era.

The Li family founded the Tang dynasty in 618 AD after the collapse of the Sui regime. Li Yuan was the first emperor and he reigned as Emperor Gaozu until 626 AD. His son, Li Shimin, ascended to the throne in 627 AD after killing his two brothers in an event known as the Xuanwu Gate Incident. Li Shimin assumed the title of Emperor Taizong and ruled until 649 AD. It is worth noting that Emperor Taizong is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest monarchs in history. This is because of his military campaigns against the Eastern Tujue and his refinement of the legal code created in 624 AD by his father. The code served as the basis for future legal systems in China and in places such as Japan and Vietnam.

The Tang Dynasty Peak

The Tang dynasty reached its apex during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong who ruled from 712 AD to 756 AD. The period is often referred to as the High Tang. A famous census in the year 754 AD revealed that the empire had about 10 million households and a total population of approximately 53 million people. Historians believe that the actual population was likely higher as many people avoided registration in order to evade taxes. The economy flourished during the early 8th century because of the stability brought about by the Silk Road and the introduction of new agricultural techniques.

Another unique aspect of the Tang era was the rise of the only legitimate female leader in the history of China – Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian was a concubine of Emperor Taizong and later the wife of his son, Emperor Gaozong. She effectively ruled the empire for decades before she officially took the title of emperor in 690 AD. The empress established her own dynasty which she named the Zhou Dynasty and she ruled until she was forced to abdicate in 705 AD. Notably, she maintained the empire’s influence in the Korean peninsula and patronized Buddhism to legitimize her rule. Her reign interrupted the Tang lineage for fifteen years.

The Spread of Chinese Culture

The might of the Tang military allowed the dynasty’s culture to spread far beyond the borders of the empire as it maintained a system of protectorates in the western regions to secure its trade routes. The Battle of Talas in 751 AD marked the limit of the western expansion when Tang forces fought against the Abbasid Caliphate.

In a change of fortunes, the defeat at Talas halted the westward advance. The era is also famous for its poetry and art. Poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu rose in the Tang era and produced thousands of poems that are still studied by students today. The Complete Tang Poems, which is a collection that was compiled later, contains over 48,000 poems written by more than 2200 Tang authors.

In December 1960, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared: “All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” In the aftermath of World War II, as the world adjusted to a new global order, the process we call decolonization (the transfer of powers from the colonial power to a local, indigenous government) sent shockwaves around the world. In some cases, independence from colonizing powers was negotiated peacefully or achieved through boycotts, peaceful demonstrations, and large-scale strikes. In other countries, decolonization was a bloody affair.

What Do We Mean by Decolonization?

Decolonization is the process of undoing colonialism, the transition of colonized countries from colonial rule and economic exploitation by a (typically) European power to the self-determination and independence of a local, Indigenous government. Decolonization in the 20th century has been both a global process, involving thousands of peoples around the world, and a very local and specific phenomenon, unfolding differently in different regions.

Overall, it led to the dissolution (sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent) of intercontinental empires over a short period of time, followed by the creation of nation-states, with local masses and leaders asserting their right to self-determination and shaking off colonial rule. Indeed, “decolonization” goes hand in hand with “self-determination,” especially in the context of the 20th century.

In their book Decolonization, a Short History, Jansen & Osterhammel define decolonization as “an apparatus for the serial production of sovereignty, as a kind of sovereignty machine that produces political unities,” unities that are “a series of states, each with a defined national territory, its own constitution, legal order, government, police, flag, and national anthem.”

In its explosive force, 20th-century decolonization produced a series of states that were soon “recognized by the already existing community of states as having equal rights and subject to no higher authority.” 20th-century decolonization is a process that can be framed within certain dates, essentially three decades, roughly from 1945, after the end of World War II, to 1975, when, as Jansen & Osterhammel write, “the oldest of the European overseas empires, the Portuguese, was the last to dissolve.” However, it is also a longer process with nebulous chronological margins.

While we can more or less pinpoint when the decolonization of a country begins, it is much harder to define when it ends. Just as the colonization of a country takes place at the hands of people, so does decolonization. And just as the colonization of a country affects its subjects politically, economically, and culturally, the process of decolonization must also take into account the internalized and psychological nature of colonial power. Ultimately, it must take into account the difficulty of people who have experienced the imposition of a different, sometimes alien, culture, to shake off the negative self-understandings imposed on them by the colonial power.

A World of Empires

On the eve of World War I, the globe was divided into imperial blocs: different regions, sometimes very distant from each other, were controlled by different European empires. The largest and most powerful was, of course, the British Empire. The French Empire controlled the Caribbean, Polynesia, Madagascar, and some areas of Southeast Asia, known as French Indochina, as well as North and West Africa, including Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco (1912-1956), Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania, to name but a few.

Different European powers controlled parts of Africa. Libya, for example, had been an Italian colony since 1911. Portugal still ruled over Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, and Mozambique, all of which became independent in the mid-1970s. Belgium ruled the Congo with a ruthless and barbaric iron fist.

The Dutch colonial empire, although not as vast as the British or French, included the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, the jewel of the Dutch crown, much as India was the jewel of the British crown, as well as the Dutch West Indies, and Suriname (officially known as Dutch Guiana).

Although Germany’s empire was short-lived, by the early 1910s Germany had colonies throughout Africa: present-day Namibia, Tanzania (which would become a British colony in 1919), Rwanda (from 1897 to 1916), Burundi, Cameroon (a German protectorate from 1884 to 1918, known as German Kamerun), Togo (from 1884 to 1919) and parts of Ghana (the latter two known as Togoland), as well as Samoa and various islands in the Pacific.

As Jansen & Osterhammel point out, “With the exception of the German colonial empire, all these empires survived the First World War and even saved themselves, however battered, for a time beyond the Second World War. By 1975, they had disappeared.”

Violent Decolonization

Decolonization, write Jansen & Osterhammel, is “a technical and rather undramatic term for one of the most dramatic processes in modern history: the disappearance of empire as a political form, and the end of racial hierarchy as a widely accepted political ideology and structuring principle of world order.”

In many cases, when the colonial powers refused to relinquish power peacefully, the transition from a world of empires and colonies to one of sovereign nation-states was violent and resulted in humanitarian crises, wars, and thousands of deaths and displacements among both the colonized and the colonizers.

This was the case of Algeria, for example, where for eight years between 1954 and 1962 the National Liberation Front (FLN) launched a series of pseudo-guerrilla attacks against the French army and French civilians, in the countryside and in the cities. France responded with mass arrests, torture, and forced relocations to concentration camps.

The number of Algerians who died in the Algerian War of Independence is still disputed, but estimates range from 45,000 to 1.5 million. Nearly a million pieds-noirs, men and women of French origin born and raised in Algeria, were displaced and fled to France. The conflict also deeply scarred post-independence Algerian society, as those who fought the French persecuted thousands of harkis, Muslim Algerian auxiliaries who fought alongside France.

The French repression in Madagascar, a French colony since 1896, between March 1947 and February 1949 was also particularly brutal. The uprising began on March 29, on the east coast, when thousands of Malagasy, supported by the local population, attacked, looted, and burned police stations, administrative centers, and military garrisons. The rebellion quickly spread across the island, from the southeast to the northwest. The French government responded with a brutality similar to that later used in Algeria.

Suspected rebels were deported to labor camps and thousands were killed in mass executions. Tens of thousands of French troops were sent to Madagascar. As they began to burn fields and slaughter cattle in retaliation, thousands of civilians faced starvation. By 1949, most of the rebel leaders were dead or behind bars, but the uprising ultimately paved the way for the island’s independence.

The late 1940s were also particularly bloody in Indonesia, which had been under Dutch rule for decades and was still known as the Dutch East Indies. On August 17, 1945, shortly after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan’s surrender, Indonesian leaders Su Karno (1901-1970), commonly known as Sukarno, and Mohammad Hatta (1902-1980) proclaimed Indonesia’s independence. Su Karno was elected as the first president of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia, while Hatta, “the Proclamator” became his vice president.

Unsurprisingly, the Dutch refused to recognize Indonesia’s independence and sent troops to re-establish their authority. Two years of bloodshed, famine, and violent massacres followed, the most notorious occurring at Rawagede in December 1947 and in South Sulawesi, where Dutch officer Raymond Westerling (1919-1987) led a particularly bloody counter-insurgency offensive between December 1946 and February 1947, killing tens of thousands of civilians.

In the countries where decolonization has been particularly violent, the colonizing power has often destroyed, “lost,” or made inaccessible state archives before leaving. This is what happened in Kenya, a British colony since 1920, where, in the 1950s the Kikuyu warriors of the Mau Mau movement waged a guerrilla campaign against the British, demanding the restitution of their ancestral lands and an end to forced labor. After years of brutal repression by the British colonial forces, Kenya finally gained independence on December 12, 1963. It became a republic in 1964, with Jomo Kenyatta, one of Africa’s most important (and controversial) anti-colonial activists, as its first president.

Peaceful Decolonization

The term “decolonization” conjures up images of violent power shifts, burning flags, massacres, armed groups storming the palaces of power, cities on fire, and foreign armies leaving. But this is not always the case. In some countries, the process of decolonization has been anything but violent.

In countries such as Malaysia, Zambia, and Ghana, to name but a few, the transfer of power was peaceful, with the former colonizing force handing over political power to a newly formed local Indigenous government through treaties and a series of legal and economic agreements detailing the transfer of power and post-independence stability.

This was the case of Malaysia, for example, which gained independence peacefully and through negotiations between the British authorities and local leaders of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). On the night of August 30, 1957, as the royal anthem God Save the Queen resonated in the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur, the flag at Merdeka Square was lowered. In its place, the new flag of Malaysia, the Stripes of Glory as it is often called, was raised.

The next day, Prime Minister-designate Tunku Abdul Rahman (1903-1990) read the Malaysian Declaration of Independence, written in both Malay and English, to thousands of Malays gathered at the Merdeka Stadium; Merdeka translates as “freedom.” That day the world echoed in the stadium as thousands sang it after Tunku Abdul Rahman finished reading the Declaration of Independence.

Over time, particularly in former British colonies, such shifts of power took the form of what Jansen & Osterhammel call a “well-rehearsed routine,” a routine steeped in symbolism. Around the world, as the British flag was lowered and replaced by the local flag and colonial officials prepared to leave the country for good, the day of the handover became Independence Day, the day to be celebrated every year thereafter as the beginning of a new era. A moment frozen in time, shrouded in symbolism, that over time has become an annual celebration, cyclically revived through celebrations, marches, and costume re-enactments.

Seven years after Malaysia’s independence, on October 24, 1964, Zambia also gained independence from the United Kingdom and Kenneth Kaunda (1924-2021) became its first president. More than a century had passed since the Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone (1813-1873) first saw Mosi-oa-Tunya, the magnificent waterfalls on the Zambezi River, which he promptly renamed Victoria Falls in honor of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). His written accounts of the falls sparked a wave of European tourism that, along with Cecil Rhodes’s (1853-1902) British South Africa Company (BSA Company), would forever change the history of the region.

On September 30, 1966, the British protectorate of Bechuanaland in Southern Africa became the independent Republic of Botswana. The transfer of power was peaceful, thanks to the combined efforts of the colonial government, Seretse Khama (1921-1980), who went on to become Botswana’s first President, and his party, the Bechuanaland Democratic Party (BDP).

While India’s independence from Great Britain in 1947 was achieved peacefully, with Indian leaders pressuring the British to withdraw through a series of peaceful protests, boycotts, and mass strikes, what followed, the Partition of South Asia into India and the state of Pakistan, which also included modern Bangladesh, represented a humanitarian tragedy of enormous proportions. As thousands of refugees were murdered in large-scale massacres, particularly in border regions such as Punjab, millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled from what had become Pakistan into India while millions of Muslims fled what had become India to seek shelter in Pakistan.

In 1957, Ghana became the first African colony to achieve independence by entirely peaceful means. In the decades that followed, many other African colonies eventually gained independence from France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. In some of them, the colonial powers and local independence movements and leaders managed to negotiate a transfer of power through diplomacy, negotiation, and gradual constitutional reform, without bloodshed and military confrontation. This is what historians call peaceful decolonization.

Other countries, such as Indonesia and Madagascar, were not so lucky. Here, the colonial powers refused to relinquish power or recognize the declaration of independence proclaimed by indigenous leaders and used military force to suppress what they considered an insurgency. Thousands of people died. Many were combatants and soldiers, but a great number of them were civilians, innocent men, women, and children who had the misfortune of living in a colonized country where diplomacy had failed.

Jesus is one of the most revered spiritual teachers in the history of the world. Born in Bethlehem, Judea sometime between 6 and 4 BC, he spread his message in mostly modern-day Israel and became the main figure of the Christian faith. Bible scriptures tell stories about how he was born, grew up, died, and came back to life. That said, the Bible never mentions what was occurring in China during this period, so it raises the question: Who ruled China while Jesus walked the streets of Judea?

Who Inspired Jesus to Start Preaching

Jesus is said to have begun preaching after being influenced by John the Baptist, his cousin. John’s popularity is said to have drawn huge groups of followers including Jesus, who he baptized at the Jordan River. Scholars point to the Jordan River as the place where Jesus began his preaching and met his first followers, Peter and Andrew.

He later traveled to a different area called Galilee, where he gathered others like Philip and Nathanael. Later on in his ministry, Jesus asked his followers what people were saying about him. They replied that some people thought that he was John the Baptist brought back from the dead. Even Herod Antipas, the local ruler of Galilee and Perea, wondered if Jesus might be the resurrected John.

The Age He Began Preaching

The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, in particular, describe his life. At around the age of 30, Jesus began his evangelistic work, moving throughout the region of Galilee and Judea, talking about the Kingdom of God and doing healing acts. His teachings emphasized love, being compassionate, offering forgiveness, and having a strong faith in God. Some of his most well-known teachings include the Sermon on the Mount, which includes the Beatitudes. At other times, he told famous short stories, such as the Good Samaritan. He is believed to be the most influential person in history largely due to the widespread popularity of the Christian religion which he established.

Who Ruled China During Jesus’s Lifetime?

During Jesus’s lifetime, the Han Dynasty governed China and lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD. Emperor Chengdi ruled from 33 BC until 7 BC and Emperor Ai ruled from 7 BC to 1 BC. As such, many experts estimate that Jesus was likely born during the reign of Emperor Ai. Emperor Ping ruled next, from 1 BC to 6 AD. Confucianism had been embraced in China at the time as the main moral system and way of living for about 100 to 150 years by Jesus’s time. It deeply shaped how leaders ran things and how education worked. The Western Han period, which lasted from 202 BC to 9 AD, ended when a government official named Wang Mang took advantage of widespread disorder and chaos to claim the throne and start the brief Xin dynasty (9 to 23 AD).

For How Long Did Wang Mang Rule?

Wang Mang broke apart the wealthy estates and gave them to regular farmers, but the peasant class soon became unhappy because of terrible flooding and other problems. By 23 AD, their anger revealed itself in rebel groups such as the Red Eyebrows. Wang Mang’s rule was ultimately brief and unsuccessful as he succeeded in angering both the elites and the commoners.

The capital was soon destroyed by a massive farmers’ uprising, and Wang Mang was murdered. Order was eventually reestablished by Emperor Guangwu, a relative of the Han royal family in 25 AD. His leadership lasted until 57 AD. The Han dynasty is known for its long period of rule and its accomplishments, which included the development of the government worker system and scientific discoveries such as the creation of paper and the development of an earthquake-sensing tool called a seismoscope.

Notable Characteristics of the Han Dynasty

The Han dynasty influenced Chinese culture so much that “Han” became the Chinese word meaning someone who is ethnically Chinese. To summarize, six different leaders ruled China in the years that Jesus existed. Emperor Ai was the leader in office when Jesus was born. He was followed by Emperor Ping, the child-emperor who ruled from 1 BC to 6 AD. Emperor Ping was followed briefly by Ruzi Ying, and then came Wang Mang. Mang ruled while Jesus was growing up and entering adulthood. Then came the Gengshi Emperor (23 to 25 AD) and finally Emperor Guangwu, who reigned from 25 AD to 57 AD. Emperor Guangwu was in power when Jesus died.

The humble passenger pigeon once dominated the skies of North America. As the most abundant species of bird on the continent, they became the avian rulers of both land and air. When gathered in great numbers, these beautiful creatures were said to blacken the horizons due to their unprecedented population.

But a little over 100 years ago, in September of 1914, the passenger pigeon became officially extinct worldwide. Historians, ornithologists, and nature lovers may naturally question where it all went wrong. How did their number go from five billion to zero within the space of a few centuries?

Why Was It Called the Passenger Pigeon?

The avian species Ectopistes migratorius was more commonly known as the passenger pigeon. Ectopistes migratorius translates as migratory wanderer. The genus name, Ectopistes, means to move about. The specific name, migratorius, implies a tendency to migrate. It is partly from these translations that the common name derives.

The name passenger pigeon is snappier and more memorable than its scientific alternative. The word passenger is taken from the French word passager, which literally means passing by. 

Both common and scientific names refer to the migratory habits of the species. The passenger pigeon tended to migrate to the eastern part of North America in September or October.

The Rise and Fall of the Pigeon Population

For around 15,000 years, enormous numbers of passenger pigeons coexisted with the Native Americans on the North American continent. Generally speaking, these centuries are thought to have been a time of relative peace and tranquillity for the species as a whole. Interestingly, archaeological evidence tells us that some Native Americans ate pigeons regularly. Although the creatures were probably hunted for their meat, the numbers being caught posed no real risk, and the passenger pigeon not only survived but thrived for many centuries.

When Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas in 1492, the population of the passenger pigeon was at its all-time peak. In North America alone, numbers are thought to have reached between three and five billion. This means that of all avian life on the continent, passenger pigeons made up a shocking 40 percent.

Not 50 years later, during a voyage of 1534, the French explorer Jacques Cartier became the first person to record a sighting of the species on paper. His observations were quickly followed by further comments by Samuel de Champlain (1574-1635) and Cotton Mather (1663-1781). The early accounts of the passenger pigeon feature descriptions of both their appearance and characteristics. They also focus largely on the stunning spectacle of a darkening, North American sky, created by the vast number of pigeons taking flight at one time.

Between the 16th and 20th centuries, the number of passenger pigeons in North America fell into a downward spiral. Predictably, as the human population rose, that of the pigeons plummeted. Throughout the 19th century in particular, settlers pressed Westward, and the previous inhabitants were pushed out.

By 1890, the wild population of passenger pigeons was thought to be no more than a few thousand. Seven years later, Michigan became the first state to ban the hunting of the passenger pigeon. Although this may have seemed like a step forward, efforts were futile, and it was ultimately too little too late.

During the early 19th century, it had been noted that the situation of the passenger pigeon was desperate. Sightings of the species were so rare that it was practically unheard of to see one in the wild. There were a few recorded exceptions. The president Theodore Roosevelt claimed to have seen a single bird in Michigan in 1907, and an ornithologist named Alexander Wetmore recorded a sighting of a pair in Kansas in 1905.

In 1910, the efforts to save the passenger pigeon were enhanced, and the American Ornithologists Union offered a reward of 3,000 dollars—the equivalent of nearly 80,000 dollars in modern times—for discovering and reporting a nest. Despite these final attempts at conservation, the last surviving passenger pigeons—George and Martha—died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1911 and 1914, respectively.

Martha: The Last of Her Kind

Of the billions of passenger pigeons ever to have lived, there was only one who ever achieved any noteworthy level of fame. Her name was Martha, and she will forever be remembered as the world’s last of her species.

It is thought that Martha hatched from her egg in 1885. Her owner was Professor Charles Otis Whitman, an American zoologist and Professor at the University of Chicago. It was he who gave his pigeon the name Martha, in honor of Martha Washington, the first first lady of the United States.

Whitman was both fascinated and concerned about the potential extinction of his treasured birds, and therefore worked closely with the Cincinnati Zoo to attempt a breeding program. It was perhaps for this reason that Whitman willingly sent Martha to the Zoo in 1902, to reside in close proximity with two males.

Despite the best efforts of professors and zookeepers, the program proved unsuccessful. By November of 1907, just five years after her arrival at her new home, Martha and her companions were the final three passenger pigeons known to man. Three soon became two, and then one, when Martha’s potential mates died in quick succession, firstly in April of 1909 and secondly in July of 1910. This meant that Martha would suffer just over four years of complete solitude. She lived the last days of her life—isolated and alone—as the last of her species.

Martha died on September 1, 1914. As she was approximately 29 years old, the cause of death is thought to have been old age. Following Martha’s death, her species was declared officially extinct.

What Caused the Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon?

When it comes to the passenger pigeon, there is no doubt about the cause of decline and eventual extinction. Just like countless other species, they fell victim to overhunting by the human race. From the European arrival in America until the death of Martha in 1914, passenger pigeons were relentlessly hunted to extinction. People purposefully caught the species not only for their meat, but for the genuine enjoyment of sport.

One of the earliest accounts of a hunt dates back to January 1565. A French explorer named René Laudonniere wrote that his party killed 10,000 passenger pigeons in their hunt over a few weeks. Of his supposed success, he said, “There came to us a manna of pigeons in such great numbers, that over a span of about seven weeks, each day we killed more than two hundred with arquebuses in the woods around our fort.”

Unfortunately for the passenger pigeons, they were considered perfect for both food and entertainment. They were extremely easy to hunt, and so even unskilled hunters found themselves with an abundant catch. For this reason, the pursuit became popular with young boys who intended to practice their hunting skills. Trap shooting also became fashionable. Passenger pigeons were released from traps, and hunters would compete to shoot down as many birds as possible as the group passed overhead. For a person to win the competition, it was occasionally necessary to shoot around 30,000 birds.

Furthermore, passenger pigeon meat was said to have had a very desirable taste. The flavor of a pigeon apparently varied depending on how and when they were caught and prepared. Young pigeons were thought to possess optimum taste and texture. Fattened pigeons were also sought after and were therefore often overfed in captivity for months. To add variation, birds were sometimes smoked, salted, or pickled. As demand for pigeon meat reached its peak, the hunt intensified, and their number rapidly declined. Passenger pigeon as a dish was now a favorite, and so hunting became a commercial practice.

It is thought that the first writer to publicly express concern about the passenger pigeon was Benedict Henry Revoil. After witnessing a hunt in 1847, he recorded his thoughts about their fate: “If the world does not end this before a century,” he began, “I will wager that the amateur of ornithology will find no more wild pigeons, except those in the Museums of Natural History.”

Revoil’s predictions proved true. Less than a century—just 70 years later—the last of the passenger pigeons had died and was preserved by the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

More Than Hunting? Other Contributing Factors to Extinction

There is no doubt that overhunting by humans was the main cause of the extinction of the passenger pigeon. However, there may have been a few more contributing factors. Some of these factors were completely separate from hunting, but others went hand in hand with it.

One such factor was deforestation. Between 1850 and 1910 alone, 180 million acres of woodland was cleared for farms and expanding towns. The species did not cope well with finding new habitats. Another factor was the abandonment of nests, eggs, and chicks. Many attempts by the passenger pigeons to repopulate were futile. As adults were hunted, many eggs and chicks were left to remain unhatched or to die from lack of care.

The combination of hunting and deforestation is known as the Blitzkrieg against the passenger pigeon.

Final Thoughts on the Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon

The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the lasting legacy of the passenger pigeon, “Its greatest legacy to humans was the impetus its extinction gave to the conservation movement.” It also informs us that, according to a monument in Wisconsin’s Wyalusing Park, the passenger pigeon “became extinct through the avarice and thoughtlessness of men.”

Martha, the last of the passenger pigeons, has become something of an icon. She now represents the threat of extinction in a variety of species, and the ongoing requirement for conservation efforts all around the globe.

The case of the passenger pigeon has been called the most senseless extinction in human history.

While Jesus was walking the streets of Judea, a powerful and ancient civilization was thriving half a world away. The stories of his life have shaped Western history, but they leave a fascinating question unanswered: what was happening in the mighty Han Dynasty of China during this pivotal era? As Jesus’s ministry began, a completely different story of emperors and dynasties was being written. So, who was ruling China at the time?

Who Inspired Jesus to Start Preaching

Jesus is said to have begun preaching after being influenced by John the Baptist, his cousin. John’s popularity is said to have drawn huge groups of followers including Jesus, who he baptized at the Jordan River. Scholars point to the Jordan River as the place where Jesus began his preaching and met his first followers, Peter and Andrew.

He later traveled to a different area called Galilee, where he gathered others like Philip and Nathanael. Later on in his ministry, Jesus asked his followers what people were saying about him. They replied that some people thought that he was John the Baptist brought back from the dead. Even Herod Antipas, the local ruler of Galilee and Perea, wondered if Jesus might be the resurrected John.

The Age He Began Preaching

The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, in particular, describe his life. At around the age of 30, Jesus began his evangelistic work, moving throughout the region of Galilee and Judea, talking about the Kingdom of God and doing healing acts. His teachings emphasized love, being compassionate, offering forgiveness, and having a strong faith in God. Some of his most well-known teachings include the Sermon on the Mount, which includes the Beatitudes.

At other times, he told famous short stories, such as the Good Samaritan. He is believed to be the most influential person in history largely due to the widespread popularity of the Christian religion which he established.

Who Ruled China During Jesus’s Lifetime?

During Jesus’s lifetime, the Han Dynasty governed China and lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD. Emperor Chengdi ruled from 33 BC until 7 BC and Emperor Ai ruled from 7 BC to 1 BC. As such, many experts estimate that Jesus was likely born during the reign of Emperor Ai. Emperor Ping ruled next, from 1 BC to 6 AD. Confucianism had been embraced in China at the time as the main moral system and way of living for about 100 to 150 years by Jesus’s time.

It deeply shaped how leaders ran things and how education worked. The Western Han period, which lasted from 202 BC to 9 AD, ended when a government official named Wang Mang took advantage of widespread disorder and chaos to claim the throne and start the brief Xin dynasty (9 to 23 AD).

For How Long Did Wang Mang Rule?

Wang Mang broke apart the wealthy estates and gave them to regular farmers, but the peasant class soon became unhappy because of terrible flooding and other problems. By 23 AD, their anger revealed itself in rebel groups such as the Red Eyebrows. Wang Mang’s rule was ultimately brief and unsuccessful as he succeeded in angering both the elites and the commoners. The capital was soon destroyed by a massive farmers’ uprising, and Wang Mang was murdered. Order was eventually reestablished by Emperor Guangwu, a relative of the Han royal family in 25 AD.

His leadership lasted until 57 AD. The Han dynasty is known for its long period of rule and its accomplishments, which included the development of the government worker system and scientific discoveries such as the creation of paper and the development of an earthquake-sensing tool called a seismoscope.

Notable Characteristics of the Han Dynasty

The Han dynasty influenced Chinese culture so much that “Han” became the Chinese word meaning someone who is ethnically Chinese. To summarize, six different leaders ruled China in the years that Jesus existed. Emperor Ai was the leader in office when Jesus was born. He was followed by Emperor Ping, the child-emperor who ruled from 1 BC to 6 AD. Emperor Ping was followed briefly by Ruzi Ying, and then came Wang Mang. Mang ruled while Jesus was growing up and entering adulthood. Then came the Gengshi Emperor (23 to 25 AD) and finally Emperor Guangwu, who reigned from 25 AD to 57 AD. Emperor Guangwu was in power when Jesus died.

As humankind evolved and developed, its medical understanding did as well. Nevertheless, even today, doctors are stumped by changing pathogens and conditions, and medical advancement continues to move forward in response. It’s no surprise that in the early days of civilization, particular groups of humans in certain conditions were accompanied by a mysterious affliction later known as scurvy. Even once scurvy was well understood, it continued to plague various people. In fact, scurvy is far from extinct, causing suffering in the modernity of the global 21st century.

What is Scurvy?

“Never mine eyes such dreary sight beheld,
Ghastly the mouths and gums enormous swelled,
And instant, putrid like a dead man’s wound,
Poisoned with foetid streams the air around…”

This graphic account comes from Camoens, a Portuguese poet, describing scurvy as it attacked explorer Vasco de Gama’s crew on a voyage to India at the tail end of the 15th century. Scurvy is a medical condition caused by a deficiency in vitamin C. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for humans. It is also known as L-absorbic acid and is water soluble, meaning regular intake is necessary. It cannot be manufactured by the body and must be consumed. Vitamin C has many applications within the human body, including synthesizing certain compounds and metabolizing protein for utilization. It is an important antioxidant, removing damaging free radicals from the body and supporting the operation of the immune system. It helps certain neurotransmitters work properly and is even believed to delay or stave off certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Recommended levels of vitamin C vary depending on gender, age, and life factors like pregnancy, but most people require 75-90 mg a day.

When an individual is consuming less than 10 mg a day over a period of time, sometimes in as little as a month, scurvy can develop. It primarily affects the skin and soft tissue of the body but can present with a variety of symptoms. Fatigue and weakness are prominent symptoms, often concentrated in the upper legs. As the disease progresses, it can cause depression, thickening of the skin, poor wound healing, damage to the hair, and swollen gums. The bacterial buildup as a result of gum damage can cause putrid breath, as referred to in Camoen’s poem. In advanced stages, bleeding becomes a concern, including ecchymosis or discolored skin caused by internal bleeding. Blood may be present in the urine or visible in the whites of the eyes.

Though the disease is easily treated, it was poorly misunderstood in the early years of human medicine and could lead to death. Not only could the symptoms of scurvy cause maladies such as sudden heart failure, but they also weakened the body to the point that it was vulnerable to other infections, such as pneumonia.

Scurvy’s Ancient History

Episodes of a disease that is believed to be scurvy were first recorded in 1550 BCE in an Egyptian medical scroll known as Eber’s Papyrus. Most other major civilizations of history also reported descriptions of the disease, including Ancient Greece and Rome. In 460 BCE, Hippocrates, one of history’s most well-known physicians, described symptoms in which “the gums separate from the teeth, blood runs from the nostrils…”

Scurvy was the bane of the exploration age, perhaps best known for its impact on sailors. Landmark events such as the American Civil War, the Irish Potato Famine, and the California Gold Rush were dotted with cases of scurvy. Though the disease was common globally, its cause, prevention methods, and treatment remained undefined for centuries.

The Sailor’s Plague-Land Sickness

Before 1500, most boat trips were coastal, but with the advent of a sea route to India and the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the “New World,” a new era in sailing was born. Sailors left port for months, even years, at a time, subjecting their bodies to restricted diets and new challenges. Since refrigeration and canning had yet to be invented, fresh foods only lasted so long on ships, which left sailors relying on rations such as biscuits and dried meats. The limited diet, often unsanitary conditions, and close quarters meant that disease, including scurvy, ran rampant. Lacking access to fresh fruits and vegetables, men began to sicken. It is estimated that in the 300 years between 1500 and 1800, the height of the exploration era, more men died from scurvy than from all other nautical dangers combined.

Before the disease was officially identified and named, it went by many monikers. These included the “Black Death of the sea,” “scorbutus,” “mal de la terre” (“land sickness”), and in Norwegian, “skyrbjugr,” as the Vikings first thought the disease was due to consuming too much skyr (a Scandinavian food similar to yogurt). Scurvy plagued several famous voyages from different parts of the world. Royal Navy expeditions, Magellan’s circumnavigation, whaling voyages, and Captain Cook’s excursions were all affected by the malady.

Captain Cook was actually one of the first to demonstrate that the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables played a role in preventing scurvy, bringing sauerkraut on voyages, and taking on fresh produce in port when possible. The sanitation standards on his ships were also higher than what was typically considered acceptable.

As early as the 16th century, Scandinavian sailors were experimenting with using berries and plants to prevent scurvy, echoing the Viking tradition of carrying cloudberries on board their ships. Little did they know that sailors who resorted to eating the ship’s rats in times of strife were also inadvertently helping themselves, as rats synthesize their own vitamin C.

The Limeys Had it Right

In 1622, explorer Sir Richard Hawkins, who claimed that in his 20 years at sea, scurvy killed 10,000 men, wrote that “sower [sic] lemons and oranges” were useful in treating the mysterious malady. However, his observations were not taken seriously until over 100 years later, when surgeon’s mate James Lind served on the HMS Salisbury. On the Salisbury, Lind carried out one of the earliest known controlled medical trials, treating scurvy patients with different remedies that had been suggested through history and recording the results from the different treatment groups. His methodologies included treatments like cider, elixir of vitriol, seawater, a garlic paste, vinegar, and citrus fruits. By the end of his first week of study, the patients who had consumed the citrus fruits daily were almost fully recovered from their ailment.

Lind published the results of his study in Treatise of the Scurvy. Still, it took 42 years for the British Admiralty to issue its first order calling for the distribution of lemon juice to sailors. Citrus fruit and their products became a staple on British ships, earning them the nickname “Limeys” from American sailors who scoffed at the preventative. The Americans would be eating crow just a few years later when American Navy physician William Barton attempted the British standby and cured scurvy-infected crew members by dosing them with citrus. Still, the disease was not understood completely until the identification of vitamin C in 1928. A lemon tree now holds a place of honor on the crest of the Institute of Naval Medicine, celebrating Lind’s work.

Scurvy in the Modern Era

Based on modern medical understanding and its generally easy remedy, one would think that scurvy is a disease firmly confined to the past. However, that is not the case. Though scurvy is not nearly as rampant as it was, it is still seen throughout the world today, with a resurgence being observed in some areas. Between 2009-2014, scurvy-related hospital admissions in England rose by 27%. Modern scurvy is usually observed, particularly among the very young or elderly, in places where fresh fruits and vegetables are not a regular part of the diet, such as in refugee camps or war-torn locations.

Children who are extremely selective or picky eaters are at risk for scurvy in the 21st century. Other high-risk individuals include those on restricted income who may be forced to choose often cheaper, less nutritious processed foods as opposed to produce. Those on restrictive diets or who have undergone bariatric weight loss surgery may use their limited caloric availability on other food choices, increasing their scurvy risk. Scurvy is often not the first diagnosis to appear in the 21st-century doctor’s mind. However, despite a long history, clear cause, and effective, fast treatment, scurvy continues to leave its mark on modern society.

Few aspects of Chinese imperial history hit as hard or as uncomfortably as the level of corruption in the early dynasties. For over two thousand years of dynastic rule gave rise to brilliant administrators and tyrants alike, yet buried within those centuries was a rot so deep that it would forever change how historians looked at power and its abuse in the empires. So, which Chinese empire had the most corruption?

Corrupt Chinese Dynasties

The rise of corruption in ancient China is often linked to the Confucian idea of rule by moral example (renzhi). But renzhi itself was meant to fight corruption through good character instead of set rules. Yet in real life, that moral framework turned into favouritism and became a cover for the pursuit of more wealth to the detriment of the commoners. Experts note that corruption grew exponentially during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Pay for government officials in the Ming dynasty was, for example, terribly low and this, many believe, directly encouraged widespread corruption.

Deep institutional decay also hit massive proportions under the Qing dynasty which is believed to have been worse. Pundits frequently point to the vice as the main trigger for 19th-century uprisings, as well as the main reason behind the rise of many secret societies and certain martial-arts groups that were against the state. 

Corruption in the Qing Dynasty

Focusing on the Qing dynasty, it existed as a Manchu-led imperial dynasty from 1636 to 1912 and served as the last imperial dynasty in Chinese history. Qianlong Emperor’s reign (from 1735 to 1796) marked the apex of the dynasty. Qianlong’s final years, however, brought internal revolts, economic disruption, official corruption, and many other governance problems. It was in that environment that the single most infamous corrupt figure in Chinese history rose to power. Heshen, a Manchu from the Niohuru clan, enjoyed special favor with the Qianlong Emperor and served as a high Qing official. 

Historical accounts portray him as possibly the most corrupt bureaucrat to ever exist in China. Some historical accounts claim that he amassed roughly 1.1 billion taels of silver, an enormous fortune that some scholars equate to hundreds of billions of dollars adjusted to current inflation rates. This was roughly fifteen years of Qing imperial revenue. Bribery became blatant under him while extortion grew on a massive scale. Associates in the imperial system copied his methods while military commanders deliberately prolonged campaigns just to plunder. 

How Heshen Maintained Power

Heshen grabbed multiple key roles in the Chinese government, including Grand Councilor, to accumulate power and routinely diverted public funds for personal use. Illegal extra fees during those years inflicted heavy hardship on ordinary people. Yellow River floods also worsened their misery as corrupt officials pocketed money meant for maintaining dikes and canals. Soaring rice and other grain prices also left huge populations hungry and caused many people to starve to death. During this time, extra income from corruption for officials reportedly reached fourteen to twenty-two times their legitimate salary. Despite the next administration attempting reforms by massively increasing official pay, the problem returned, years later. 

Why Was the Qing Dynasty the Most Affected by Corruption?

The Qing dynasty’s corruption situation was worsened by ethnic factors. At the time, tensions existed between the ruling Manchu minority and the Han Chinese majority, with the Manchus keeping special privileges and requiring markers of submission, most notably the mandatory queue hairstyle. Harm from personal favoritism under an old emperor also caused serious damage. In his later years, the Qianlong Emperor trusted corrupt officials such as Heshen, who as the highest-ranked minister managed the daily governance of the dynasty. 

The emperor, at the time, spent time on arts and literature. The neglect exacerbated corruption levels in the dynasty. The Qing dynasty’s office purchase system, called juanna, also worsened corruption by enabling people to pay government officials to get jobs. It allowed people to skip the tough, competitive exam system completely destroying the concept of merit-based selection. Kangxi Emperor, for example, sold titles to help finance his war against the Three Feudatories rebellion. The practice gave government officials a steady flow of money. Many of those who got their positions this way often turned to corruption to make back some of the money that they had spent, and usually much more.

History often remembers World War II for its beachhead landings and setpiece battles. These seven American generals in the Second World War were not only effective commanders but also shaped the course of global history for the rest of the century and up to the present day. They became the 20th-century Argonauts, leaders who epitomized the theory of the Great Man and built the foundations of American hegemony.

1. George Marshall: The Architect of Victory and Peace

Born in 1880 in Pennsylvania, General George Marshall proved to be one of the most powerful men in uniform of any country during WWII. A veteran of the Philippine-American War and the First World War, he was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and a lifelong infantryman. Marshall had a talent for staffwork and organization and was nicknamed “the noblest Roman of them all” by Winston Churchill.

From September 1939 to November 1945, Marshall held the role of Chief of Staff of the US Army. On his watch, the US Army underwent the largest expansion in its history from 200,000 men to over 8,000,000 men. Additionally, he oversaw the rehabilitation of a force degraded by years of poor commanders and insufficient training, turning the army into a well-honed machine. His leadership ensured that the Americans had a smooth chain of command throughout the war.

After the end of the war, he was appointed Secretary of State by President Truman in January 1947 and oversaw the implementation of the Marshall Plan, the aid program to support postwar reconstruction in Europe. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the only career Army officer ever to receive the honor. Upon his retirement, he was one of the world’s most distinguished military commanders and public servants, a military statesman and icon of American power.

2. Dwight D. Eisenhower: Supreme Allied Commander

Marshall could not do it alone; he needed competent subordinates to execute the Allied war plans. One of these subordinates became one of the most famous military commanders in history, possibly more so than Marshall himself. Dwight D. Eisenhower was ten years younger than Marshall grew up in Texas. When war broke out in 1939, he was a lieutenant colonel; by 1945, he was General of the Army (five stars) and the Supreme Allied Commander in Northwest Europe.

Eisenhower oversaw the invasion of North Africa, the landing in Sicily, the Normandy invasion, and the march into Germany. By the end of the war in Europe, he commanded 91 divisions from a polyglot mixture of countries, led by prickly personalities such as British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and General George Patton.

Eisenhower was not always considered the best tactician or battle manager. He lacked command experience of large numbers of men in a war zone. Where he excelled was the implementation of the strategy devised by the Western Allied leadership and his ability to command a force composed of men from so many different countries. Even when there were major disputes between commanders of different Allied countries, he ensured that they didn’t hinder the plan to crush the Germans.

After the war, he succeeded Marshall briefly as Army Chief of Staff, became the 1st Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and served as a two-term president from 1953-1961. Like George Marshall, Eisenhower was a military statesman who left a lasting global legacy in uniform and as a civilian political leader.

3. Douglas MacArthur: The Brilliant Insubordinate

On the other end of the globe, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, leading the Southwest Pacific Area Command, was also able to execute the Allied war plan against Japan, though with considerably more notoriety. MacArthur’s career was topsy-turvy. He had risen through the ranks, fighting in WWI and even served as Chief of Staff several years before Marshall did.

When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and invaded Southeast Asia in December 1941, MacArthur was serving as the commanding officer of the Philippine military before they were due to get full independence. He was recalled to active service right before the Pearl Harbor attacks and led the doomed defense of the Philippines before being ordered to withdraw to Australia.

MacArthur took command of his headquarters and led a series of offensives against the Japanese in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands before fulfilling his vow to return to the Philippines. He pursued an island-hopping strategy to bypass heavily defended Japanese islands, taking advantage of Allied control of the sea. By the end of the war, he was the Supreme Allied Commander in Tokyo and oversaw the postwar reconstruction of Japan.

However, his reputation for braggadocio and feuding with the White House led to his downfall. Despite the operational brilliance of his landing at Inchon during the Korean War, MacArthur’s tendency to challenge President Truman’s policy led to his dismissal. Despite his insubordination, MacArthur continues to be regarded as one of the most talented field commanders in American history.

4. George Patton Jr.: The Peerless Tank Commander

Like General Eisenhower, George Patton rose up the ranks rapidly in WWII from colonel in 1939 to four-star general in 1945. Unlike Eisenhower, Patton was a rambunctious, aggressive, controversial field commander who made his legend through his willingness to fight the enemy as much as possible and was disdainful of the other Allies during the war.

Born in 1885 in California, Patton was a veteran of the Mexico Expedition in 1916 and WWI. Unlike many other American generals, he was an experienced tank man, having commanded an armored brigade. This reinforced his sense of aggressiveness, leading him to drive his subordinates hard and insist that they lead their men from the front.

During the war, he commanded the II Corps in North Africa, the 7th Army in Sicily, and the 3rd Army in mainland Europe, where his aggressive instincts broke Germany’s formidable Siegfried Line. His command was marred with controversy; he slapped a shell-shocked soldier in the face, leading to his firing from the command of the 7th Army. He was later relieved of command from the 3rd Army after telling reporters he wanted to fight the Soviets.

Nonetheless, his reputation as a hard-driving officer ensured that he would be seen as a talented battlefield commander around the world. The 1970s movie Patton became a classic war film and a favorite of President Richard Nixon. While he was not as high ranking as the generals listed above, he was still one of the most well-known generals in military history.

5. Henry Hap Arnold: The Visionary of Global Air Power

The Second World War saw the rise of the use of mass aircraft in an offensive role independent from ground operations. While the independent US Air Force did not exist during the war, the US Army Air Force did operate as an independent force when conducting strategic bombing in Europe and Asia. The commander of the USAAF was General Henry Hap Arnold. Arnold was one of the first military pilots in history and learned to fly from the Wright Brothers in 1911. During WWI, he was responsible for converting civilian factories to produce thousands of planes and engines.

After taking over the USAAF in 1938, Arnold exhibited logistical mastery in transforming the force into a lethal tool that could shatter the enemy’s ability to make war. In 1939, the USAAF had 20,000 men and a few hundred planes. By the end of the war in 1945, it had over 2.4 million personnel and 80,000 aircraft. Arnold suffered from severe stress and had four heart attacks during the war, but he managed to continue in the role.

After the war ended, he lobbied heavily for the creation of the independent USAF, which came into being in 1947. In 1949, he was awarded the five-star rank of General of the Air Force to accompany his five-star General of the Army. He was considered one of the most ruthless air commanders during the war and became synonymous with the concept of strategic bombing.

6. Omar Bradley: The GI General and the Largest Field Command

As Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Eisenhower had three army groups under his command. The largest of these was the 12th Army Group of 1.3 million men under General Omar Bradley. This gave him the distinction of being the field commander to oversee the largest body of men in any American military formation to date. Bradley, whose calm demeanor and empathy for his men earned him the nickname the “GI General”, started the war as a staff officer at the Pentagon and ended it as one of the most prominent field commanders of any military during the war.

General Bradley took over command of the II Corps from General Patton and played a role in the destruction of the German and Italian forces in Tunisia. While he was initially Patton’s junior, he leapfrogged him as commander of the 1st Army in Normandy and then as commander of the 12th Army Group, which included Patton’s 3rd Army.

Bradley earned a reputation as a level-headed commander, overseeing the breach of the Siegfried Line, the counterattack in the Ardennes, and the crossing of the Rhine. After the war, he served as head of the Veterans Administration, Army Chief of Staff, and the 1st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in US military history.

7. Curtis LeMay: The Ruthless Theorist of Strategic Bombing

General Curtis LeMay was the equivalent of Patton in the Army Air Force: a bombastic, aggressive commander who sought to use as much force against the enemy as possible. Unlike Patton, he lived to see much of the Cold War after his service as a commander in WWII.

General LeMay started the war as a Major and became a Major General by the end at a mere 38 years old. When he took over a bomb group in Britain, he devised the theory of the “combat box”, in which bombers flew as close to each other as possible to maximize the effect of their onboard machine guns. After commanding the 3rd Bombardment Division in 1943 in England, he transferred to the Pacific where Hap Arnold ordered him to take over the XX and XXI Bomber Commands.

America was bombing Japan ineffectually and LeMay sought to change that. On his watch, the US firebombed multiple Japanese cities, bringing home the war to the Japanese public. He also oversaw the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This proved to be some of the most controversial acts of the war and earned LeMay a reputation as a ruthless commander.

After the war, he served as commander of Strategic Air Command, the Air Force Chief of Staff and the running mate for George Wallace’s segregationist presidential campaign in 1968. Like Arnold, he became one of the major architects of strategic bombing (so-called “bomber barons”) and a major proponent of air power.

Building American Hegemony

America has always had military commanders known for their competence and ruthlessness: Winfield Scott, William T. Sherman, Norman Schwarzkopf, and others. However, the generals that oversaw America’s effort to defeat the Axis Powers became legends akin to the most famous rockstars of the 20th century. These men understood the use of hard power as a tool of diplomacy and how their efforts could lead America to becoming a superpower.

The US Army started WWII with very limited resources, poor training, and a lack of confidence. Thanks to the efforts of these men, and many others, the army was transformed into one of the most powerful armies ever seen in human history. That is not to say that they were flawless. Many of them showed poor judgement in certain areas of command and morality. However, they were able to overcome whatever flaws they had to ensure Allied victory in the Second World War and facilitate American leadership in the postwar world.

Albert Einstein, Alan Turing, Alexander Graham Bell and even Pythagoras—all famous for their contributions to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, making them household names. But what about the women in STEM? Historically, women in STEM fields have been plagued by misogyny as well as the absence of female colleagues to support and inspire them. As a result, STEM fields remain dominated by men. Here are six inspiring and influential women in STEM that we should all know!

1. Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000)

Hedy Lamarr, a popular actress during the 1940s and 50s, was once seen as a fixture of popular American culture. Today, Lamarr is best known for her beauty and acting—in fact, few people know that a technology she co-invented helped create a staple of modern life: Wi-Fi.

Though best known for her achievements in acting, having been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, Lamarr had been interested in technology from a young age. She was not trained in any STEM subjects, but she read books about engineering voraciously and as a result would design her own inventions. In the early days, these inventions were quite rudimentary—a glow-in-the-dark dog collar, for example—but World War II changed everything.

Working alongside George Antheil, an American composer, Lamarr discovered “frequency hopping.” This ingenious invention meant that switching radio frequencies became easier and signals jammed less often. Lamarr and Antheil aimed for their discovery to be used as a secret communications system; secret messages sent using their frequency hopping system were prevented from being intercepted.

Lamarr patented the invention in 1942 and planned to sell it to the US military, to help the navy command torpedoes underwater undetected, but frequency hopping wasn’t actually put into use until the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Frequency hopping, as well as the spread spectrum invented by Lamarr, provided the basis and earliest models of modern wireless communication technology like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

2. Dame Elizabeth Anionwu (1947- )

Dame Elizabeth Anionwu started her career in STEM as a nurse working for Britain’s National Health Service when she was just 16 years old. Working as a community nurse, Anionwu learned about sickle cell disease, an inherited variation of anemia that mainly affects those of African heritage, and decided to dedicate her career to helping those affected.

Anionwu felt as if sickle cell disease wasn’t thoroughly understood, or studied, by the NHS, and that there weren’t enough developments being made to help those who suffered from the disease. So, Anionwu traveled to the US to learn more about sickle cell disease and sickle cell anemia, as the resources and courses she needed were not available in the UK at the time.

In 1979, working alongside Dr. Milica Brozović, she opened the first UK center for counseling and screening for sickle cell disease, led by nurses in London. As more than 30 additional centers of this sort opened nationwide, Anionwu lectured at University College London and later became the dean of the School of Adult Nursing Studies and Professor of Nursing at the University of West London.

Anionwu wrote The Politics of Sickle Cell and Thalassemia in 2001, and A Short History of Mary Seacole in 2005. She is committed to fighting medical racism and discrimination that Black and minority ethnic patients face.

3. Katherine Johnson (1918-2020)

American mathematician Katherine Johnson is the reason man walked on the moon. One of NASA’s “human computers,” Johnson conducted and completed the complex calculations that sent astronauts into orbit in the 1960s and then to the moon in 1969.

Born in 1918, Johnson was a very bright child, having completed the eighth grade when she was only ten years old. Her town didn’t offer any further education for African Americans after the eighth grade, and so her father moved her family 120 miles away so she could attend high school. She ultimately graduated from high school at 14 and then from college, with a degree in mathematics, at 18.

In 1952, she applied to NASA after learning that they were hiring African American women to work as computers and check calculations. Those at NASA were impressed with Johnson’s adeptness and curiosity, and two weeks later she was moved to the flight research division.

Johnson found that geometry was the easiest way to calculate how to fly to space, and was given the task of plotting America’s first space journey in 1961. Johnson also worked on America’s space journey in 1962, 1969’s Apollo 11 mission, and calculated how to safely return the astronauts on the failed Apollo 13 mission in 1970. Johnson retired from NASA in 1986. The book by Margot Lee Shetterly and subsequent 2016 film Hidden Figures were based on Johnson’s work at NASA alongside fellow Black mathematicians Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson.

4. Barbara McClintock (1902-1992)

In 1983, Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine when she was 81 years old. Thought of as one of the greatest modern geneticists, McClintock discovered mobile genetic elements, which are genes that move between chromosomes.

Studying botany at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture, McClintock discovered her love and passion for genetics when studying maize chromosomes and how they change during reproduction. In 1929, McClintock identified all ten maize chromosomes, and was the first person to do so. McClintock was also the first person to be able to describe the genetic map of maize—before the DNA structure was discovered in 1953!

In the 1940s and 50s, she began her work and breakthroughs in the field of mobile genetic elements. At that time, most scientists believed that genes were static and stationary, and so McClintock’s work proving that some forms of genetic material can move was met with hostility. McClintock received so much backlash that she stopped publishing in 1953.

It wasn’t until the 1960s that her work was fully understood and accepted, and in 1970 she received the National Medal of Science, the first woman to do so. She later won her Nobel Prize, and in 1986 she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

After her death in 1992, biographies about her life and her discoveries were published to help inspire other young women and girls to study science and other STEM subjects.

5. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997)

Known as the “first lady of physics,” nuclear physicist Chien-Shiung Wu worked on the Manhattan Project. Born in a small town near Shanghai, education was always very important to the Wu family. Her mother was a teacher and her father was an engineer, and so she was encouraged to pursue STEM subjects from a young age.

She first attended Nanjing University to study mathematics but switched to physics after being inspired by Marie Curie and graduated top of her class in 1934.

From 1935-1936, Wu completed her first experimental research, studying X-ray crystallography under the tutelage of Dr. Gu Jing-Wei. A fellow female researcher, she encouraged Wu to study at Berkeley, prompting Wu to move to the US. She later became the first female instructor to teach in Princeton’s physics department.

In 1944, she joined Columbia’s Manhattan Project, the program working to develop the first nuclear weapons, focusing her work on radiation detectors. She also discovered a way to improve uranium ore to produce large amounts of uranium, to be used as the bomb’s fuel.

Wu retired from teaching in 1981 and organized educational programs for people in the US, Taiwan, and China. She also dedicated the rest of her life to advocating for equal opportunities and rights for women in STEM and lectured worldwide to inspire young women in STEM.

6. Dr. Indira Hinduja (1946- )

Dr. Indira Hinduja is a highly respected gynecologist and obstetrician who is one of the leading doctors in the field of combating infertility in India. Studying medicine at the University of Mumbai Medical School and practicing at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, she began experimenting with cell biology and embryology. This led her to her PHD in “Human In-vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer,” and this medical research helped make possible the birth of India’s first “test tube” baby.

Later in her career, Dr. Hinduja developed the Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer (GIFT) Technology and went on to deliver India’s first GIFT baby in 1988. Her GIFT technique involves removing eggs from the ovaries and placing them in the fallopian tubes with the sperm.

Other medical breakthroughs she has pioneered include the development of the Oocyte Donation Technique, which helps patients with premature and menopausal ovarian failure. In 1991, the first baby was born using this technique.

Dr. Hinduja’s groundbreaking medical procedures have paved the way for even more research into stem cell biology, and her research has helped many couples struggling with infertility.