Libertarianism

Libertarianism

Libertarianism is a political theory that holds that the authorities is nearly a conspiratorial force, trying to enslave the people through its coercive power. Libertarians believe inwards private liberty too private choice. They refuse the role of forcefulness or fraud to compel others, except inwards reply to forcefulness or fraud.

Libertarians desire to direct the authorities out of private decisions past times reducing the size of the authorities to the most essential business office of providing for a peaceful surround inwards which all persons tin prosper. As a utopian ideal, libertarianism is based on the notion that lodge exists at its most costless when people move together voluntarily without authorities intervention.

The basic principles of modern libertarianism are attributed to the writings of Ayn Rand, particularly her new Atlas Shrugged (1957). In this work, Rand describes a U.S. lodge weakened past times many years of welfare.

Contemporay U.S. lodge has made individualism too the move ethic into an evil. Instead of working for a living, the characters inwards the new believe that the authorities owes them their livelihoods. In the new Rand instead offers the saying of libertarianism: individualism or selfishness is good.


The economist Murray Rothbard has built upon Rand to educate a to a greater extent than theoretical outline. He argues that authorities is inherently aggressive too exploitative. Instead of government, lodge should rely on the costless marketplace equally the most efficient method of distributing resources.

Libertarianism became the footing for a political political party that emerged inwards the US inwards the early on 1970s. The Libertarian Party ran philosophy professor John Hospers equally its presidential candidate inwards 1972.

While the political party reached the ballot inwards solely 2 states, Hospers did have 1 electoral vote. Roger MacBride, the Virginia elector who sort his vote for Hospers inwards 1972, was the party’s nominee inwards 1976, receiving over 200,000 votes inwards the Nov election.

The party, too the libertarian motility inwards the United States, grew dramatically inwards the slow 1970s, due primarily to the fiscal contributions of the Koch brothers, Charles too David, owners of Koch Industries. With their assistance, libertarians were able to flora a seat out of publications too an active intend tank, the Cato Institute.

In the election of 1980, David Koch was the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential nominee, primarily to direct wages of a loophole inwards federal effort finance police describe allowing a candidate to pass unlimited effort funds. Because of the fiscal assistance provided past times the Kochs, the party’s nominees appeared on the ballot inwards all 50 states. The effect of their influence inwards the motility was a battle over strategy, however.

The political party was separate betwixt a grouping of opportunists represented past times the Kochs too the “missionaries,” next Murray Rothbard. Rothbard referred to the Koch brothers’ influence equally the “Kochtopus.” The Libertarian Party ticket received 900,000 votes inwards 1980, a disappointment considering the millions of dollars spent past times David Koch.

In 1983, the Koch supporters, too known equally the “Cato group,” left the political party afterwards their candidate was non nominated past times the political party convention. Without the Kochs’ fiscal support, the political party did non have equally much attending for the remainder of the century.

Libertarianism, too the Libertarian Party, direct maintain had a hard fourth dimension finding credence inwards the United States, inwards part because the philosophy does non gibe neatly on the liberal-conservative continuum amongst which most Americans are familiar. Libertarians emphasize costless markets, making them like to many conservatives.

It is the libertarians’ belief that people should hold upward costless to select their social activities, including, for example, the role of drugs, that puts the philosophy at odds amongst to a greater extent than cultural conservatives.

In short, libertarians believe that national defence forcefulness too police describe enforcement are the solely areas inwards which governments should hold upward involved. They oppose the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) because it establishes an entangling alliance that mightiness move to convey the US into unnecessary conflict.

The UN is too opposed because it undermines national sovereignty past times placing ability inwards the hands of international bureaucrats. Libertarians oppose restrictions on merchandise too immigration, believing that the costless marketplace to a greater extent than efficiently regulates these areas.

Libertarianism has enjoyed some express success. Many of its basic principles were voiced past times the direction of President Ronald Reagan inwards the 1980s. Government services were privatized inwards the US too inwards Europe, where a seat out of national airlines too railroads were sold past times the government.

By the get-go of the twenty-first century, in that location were hundreds of thousands of libertarians some the world. Many participate equally pro-freedom activists inwards traditional parties land others exercise their ain political parties. All believe that authorities is the problem, non the solution.

The Conway Cabal

General Thomas Conway

The Conway Cabal was a conspiratorial endeavor to take away General George Washington every bit the Continental Army’s commander-in-chief inward favor of General Horatio Gates, therefore setting the phase for a negotiated small town to destination the American Revolution during the autumn as well as wintertime of 1777 as well as 1778.

Washington as well as his closest allies inward Congress recognized it every bit an endeavor to destination the state of war without inaugural of all securing a British recognition of American independence. The travail to take away General Washington came at a crucial fourth dimension during the war. Since taking on the assignment every bit commander-inchief of the Continental Army, Washington had few successes to telephone telephone his own, amongst the exception of 2 nipper victories at Trenton as well as Princeton inward the wintertime of 1776–1777.

As the bound campaigns began, British General John Burgoyne launched an ambitious excogitation to sever New England from the balance of the novel country, patch General William Howe laid his sights on the American capital, Philadelphia.

The ensuing British describe of piece of employment of Philadelphia established a province of affairs conducive toward a negotiated destination of the war, something that both General Howe as well as the to a greater extent than conservative members of Congress desired. Such goals withered away every bit it became increasingly apparent that Washington as well as his closest allies inward Congress were non going to allow for a negotiated small town that did non inaugural of all recognize American independence.


Opposition against Washington inward Congress had been brewing for some time. Members of the New England delegation were critical of the general’s inability to accomplish a decisive victory against the British. As the state of war entered its bit year, their criticism became increasingly loud, every bit they made it abundantly clear that the fourth dimension had come upwards for a novel commander-in-chief.

Following British General John Burgoyne’s give upwards at Saratoga inward Oct 1777, Washington’s strongest congressional critics became convinced that they had found the human being to supersede him—General Horatio Gates, the “hero of Saratoga.”

Gates’s newfound condition every bit savior of the Revolution enhanced the ambitions of many men who surrounded him, as well as they hoped to advance their ain careers on the general’s coattails. Thomas Conway, whose cite was subsequently given to the conspiracy, was ane such individual.

General Horatio Gates

Conway was of Irish-French origin, as well as he received a committee inward the Continental Army from Silas Deane, an American diplomat stationed inward France. Deane, much to Washington’s chagrin, started awarding positions to a large coterie of unusual officers inward the Continental Army without the prior blessing of Washington or Congress.

General Thomas Conway was ane such private who sought advancement, only shortly realized that his opportunities were express every bit long every bit Washington was commander-inchief. Conway gravitated toward those who rallied around General Horatio Gates, who besides had influential friends inward Congress.

In slow Oct 1777, Conway addressed a missive of the alphabet to Gates that contained disparaging references to Washington’s abilities every bit a armed services leader, stating, “heaven has been determined to salve your country; or a weak General as well as bad Councilors would convey ruined it.” When the being of the missive of the alphabet was brought to Washington’s attention, he confronted Gates as well as the conspiracy began to unravel, only the thing was non position to balance completely until the showtime of bound 1778.

The concerns raised past times members of the New England delegation as well as the ambitions of men similar Thomas Conway played into the interests of the to a greater extent than conservative members of Congress who believed that a negotiated small town was the best that the Americans could promise to achieve.

Washington as well as his allies inward Congress, however, represented the biggest obstacles inward their path. Many of these individuals already had unopen ties amongst Horatio Gates, as well as they were convinced that he would move to a greater extent than supportive of seeking a negotiated peace amongst the British. Gates’s identification every bit the “hero of Saratoga” made him a rigid candidate to supersede Washington.

The conspiracy unraveled every bit Washington as well as his allies inward Congress closed ranks as well as resisted whatsoever serious endeavor to take away him every bit commander-inchief. The divergent as well as conflicting interests of those who desired Washington’s removal prevented them from mounting a sustained challenge against the general.

They were united entirely past times their shared wishing to take away Washington every bit commander-inchief, only they sought this goal for opposing reasons—the general’s New England critics idea that past times replacing Washington amongst Gates, independence would move assured; the conservatives inward Congress idea that past times removing Washington, the phase would move laid for a negotiated destination to the war. Consequently the conspiracy failed.

Heian

Heian building

The term Heian is derived from modern-day Kyoto’s previous name of Heian-kyo, a city founded in 794. The literal translation of Heian-kyo is “Capital of Peace and Tranquility” and was meant to reflect its peaceful and protected surroundings. The literal translation of Heian is “peace” in Japanese.

Located near the village of Uda, between the Katsura and Kamo Rivers, and with Mount Hiei providing spectacular natural geographical protection, the new capital was similar in design to the Chinese city Chang’an and was built according to Chinese feng shui principles. Heian-kyo was the center of political power and the capital of Japan until 1868, when the Meiji Restoration saw Emperor Kammu move to the city of Edo.

Edo was then renamed as Tokyo (Eastern Capital) to illustrate the shift in power. The Imperial Court remained at Heian-kyo. The Heian period witnessed the emergence of a Japanese identity that was distinct from Chinese influences and is often regarded as a golden age of Japanese culture.


The Heian period can be broken into three distinct eras. The first period, referred to as the Early Heian era, witnessed the foundation of Heian-Kyo in 794 b.c.e. and extended to around the late 960s b.c.e. The Middle Heian period extended to 1067 c.e. and was characterized by the rule of the Fujiwara clan and their courtly behavior. The Late Heian period extended to 1192 and is known for the insei (cloistered government) and for providing the framework for the establishment of the feudal system in Japan.

The move to Heian-kyo from the capital Nagaoka was necessary to curb the increasing struggles over the throne. The ongoing clan struggles resulted in Emperor Kammu taking drastic political and social reforms to try to stabilize the situation. As a result the Heian period experienced one of the longest periods of sustained peace in classical Japanese history.

Four noble families attempted to control the political scene during the Early Heian period. The Minamoto, Tachibana, Taira, and Fujiwara families all tried to influence the political atmosphere for the benefit of their own interests and pursuits. During the Middle period the Fujiwara family clearly dominated the government and because of familial ties influenced the imperial family.

The families required the services of the warrior classes to provide protection (much like security guards) thus creating the initial surge in the samurai and bushi numbers. Another important family that emerged during the Late Heian period, the Taira, eventually overthrew the Fujiwara family. The Minamoto clan then overthrew the Taira.

The Early period was also defined by the start of a clear religious doctrinal change. There was movement away from the Chinese influenced Neo-Confucianism toward a Buddhist religious perspective that echoed aspects of Japan’s indigenous religion Shinto. The imperial court adopted Mahayana Buddhism relatively quickly and it in turn merged with aspects of Shinto to create an essentially Japanese religion (called Shinbutso Shugo) that flourished.

It was during this period that Shinto architecture and art started to transform and mass temple building began. Buddhist artisans were abundant and produced sculptures as religious objects, but also as art objects for wealthy families. Stoneware and bronze were used by both the imperial households and the lay people, while the emperor preferred silver for monastic and royal events.

Metal craft reached its pinnacle during the Heian era, particularly during the Middle to Late periods, where samurai armor incorporated various motifs (according to the house that they served) and sword-smiths began to engrave their swords with their names. Armor was held in such high regard that the most powerful families and warlords offered them to Shinto shrines as holy relics.

The Early period also witnessed the introduction of new Buddhist sects called the Tendai (Heavenly Terrace) in 805 b.c.e. by Saicho and the Shingon (True Word), and in 806 b.c.e. by Kukai. The introduction of these sects contributed to stylistic changes in architecture—for example, Shingon temples adopted the use of the pagoda.

Pure Land Buddhism also began to take root within Heian society and around the same time Korean monks started introducing the now well-known Zen (or Ch’an) Buddhism. Gardens were used as contemplative areas and there was a movement toward meditative practice. Cultural festivals (Buddhist, Shinto, and Confucian) shaped the whole Heian period, and more festivals were introduced and conceived, including the Cherry-Blossom Feast and the Feast of Red Autumn Foliage.

The concept of art underwent a transformation during the Heian periods—it was used for aesthetic as well as religious purposes, and new art practices were created. Art for art’s sake was encouraged and artists, poets, and writers began to create and recognize a distinct Japanese identity.

Secular paintings and art have been referred to in literature of the day; however very little survived to the present. Japanese artists would paint sutras (Buddhist writings) or intricate landscapes onto folding fans, which became highly desirable and exported items during this period.

Heian painting

Literature also started to become fashionable, especially diaries of court providing details of life inside the palace. The most popular book of the early periode was Makura no soshi (The Pillow Book) written by Sei Shonagon. Sei came from a literary family, her father Kiyohara Motosuke (a poet) and her great-grandfather the well-known Fukayabu.

It in turn influenced many other writers to pen their experiences in the imperial household, thus creating a distinct phase of early Japanese literature. Monogatari-e (illustrations for novels) emerged during the late 10th century and was viewed as the perfect coupling of prose and painting. It became the preferred pastime of those in the imperial household and during the Late Heian period, art competitions and shows were commonplace.

The Heian Middle to Late period is generally viewed as the most productive sociocultural period in Japanese history, as it marked a move away from Chinese influence on culture, society, and religion toward the creation of an essentially Japanese identity. The Middle Heian period witnessed a flourishing of literary and artistic pursuits and is often described as the “early” history of Japan.

During the late stages of the Early Heian period and blossoming during the Middle period, a new writing system was developed. Based upon syllables (hiragana and katakana), the new kana writing system allowed for the creation of Japanese literature and texts without depending upon kanji. It initiated a new sociocultural identity, a unique Japanese perspective that would profoundly influence Japanese life.

Calligraphy and calligraphers were attached to imperial offices and were required to provide calligraphy for things as diverse as imperial temple walls and hanging scrolls. New calligraphy styles such as “Women’s Hand” became widely recognized because of their use in calligraphic poems. It was also popular to determine one’s character by the style of writing, and use of medium.

A favorite pastime of imperial ladies was to swap poetry in elaborate folded pieces of paper, using different fasteners to convey hidden meanings. Decorative paper was highly prized and paper collages became an art form that has continued to the present time. The majority of lay people (other than the warrior classes) were not exposed to such hobbies as most were illiterate.

Literary forms experienced change with the advent of court diaries and their tendency toward long sections of prose and observation. The Middle to Late Heian period witnessed a further flourishing of literature. The establishment of an office of poetry by the imperial court in 951 accounted for the initial explosion of interest in waka (tradtional Japanese poetry).

Diplomatic ties were increasingly cut with the Chinese Tang (T’ang) dynasty during the Middle Heian period and thus there was a movement away from the Chinese style of poetry (kanshi). There were frequent poetry contests between noble contestants—the imperial palace often acting as a backdrop to the proceedings. Although the Heian court demanded its subjects write in Chinese, they compromised by writing sections of their poems with Japanese script toward the end of the prose.

A popular literary writer of the Middle to Late Heian period was Murasaki Shikibu, who created a sensation with her novel Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji). Written around 1000 to 1008, it is often credited as the world’s first novel. The novel relates the customs and practices common to the Heian era. Men and women of high status powdered their faces white.

The imperial households wore stately robes, which were modeled on Chinese state robes. Several types of hats were worn, depending upon rank and the formality of the events. Women in the court would wear white silk with heavy brocade jackets and wore their hair long, often with the aid of wig attachments. It was fashionable to leave it unfastened so it flowed freely.

The Late Heian period witnessed what could be described as an elitist form of social hierarchy; it was highly formalized and exclusive. Although the Heian period underwent enormous social and cultural change it was economically stagnant; thus the majority of people were poor and uneducated.

Little social or cultural change occurred within this class with the exception of the rise of the warrior class, which was able to exist on the fringes of both classes with relative ease. Despite this, the Heian period left a great cultural heritage and contributed toward the social and cultural psyche of modern Japan.

House of Stuart (England)

House of Stuart (England)

The Stuart dynasty ruled England at a time when the power of the absolute monarchy was declining in England and the powers of representative government were increasing.

The Stuart dynasty came into power in England with the death of the last Tudor dynasty, Queen Elizabeth I, in 1603. Elizabeth died without an heir, forcing the English government to ask the Stuart family of Scotland to assume the throne of England.

The Stuarts were related to the House of Tudor, as Mary Stuart and Elizabeth were cousins. Despite the fact that Mary was executed for treason in 1587, her son James Stuart (James I), the king of Scotland, was chosen to succeed Elizabeth. This choice brought the Crowns of Scotland and England under one monarch, despite the fact that they remained two separate kingdoms.


James was a firm believer in the powers of an absolute monarch, as is evidenced by his writings and speeches to the English parliament. When James came to the throne of England, he had to contend with financial difficulties and clashes with Parliament over the prerogatives of the monarchy.

These issues arose as James attempted to raise new revenues by imposing taxes on his subjects without the approval of Parliament. James was also upset by the fact Parliament was against his choice of a potential bride for his son because she was Catholic and Spanish. This hostility occurred as a result of the tensions between Protestant England and Catholic Spain.

James was so infuriated by the Parliament’s creation of the Great Protestation in 1621, a list of privileges the English parliament claimed it was entitled to, that he dissolved Parliament and arrested four individuals responsible for this action.

Charles I succeeded his father to the thrones of Scotland and England when James died in 1625. Parliament continued to attempt to place restrictions on the power of the king by issuing a Petition of Rights in 1628.

The petition placed limitations on the king’s power to raise revenue without the permission of Parliament, required the permission of subjects to house soldiers in their homes, placed restrictions on the king to impose martial law, and restricted the king from arresting a subject without laying proper criminal charges.

Charles signed this petition because he wished to obtain funds from Parliament, but he soon illustrated his desire to subvert the petition by acquiring as much money from his subjects as possible without assembling Parliament through the extension of existing taxes.

The attempt by Charles I to rule England without the assent of Parliament caused many problems and violated the traditional institutional basis of English law. Charles also made many enemies by imposing Anglican conformity on the populace and taking away the pulpits of the Puritans.

Dissolution and Recall of Parliment

It was the desire of the archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, to impose Anglican conformity on the Presbyterian Scots that led to the English Civil War. Charles prepared to move an army into Scotland in 1638 to create a settlement to this religious dispute with the Scots.

Charles could not afford this army, and Parliament refused to give Charles any more money unless he rectified the grievances that had occurred during his and his father’s reigns. Charles refused to accept this ultimatum and dissolved Parliament in May 1640, but he was forced to recall Parliament as he needed funds to subdue the Scottish army.

When Parliament was assembled in October 1641, it attempted to place further restrictions on the ability of the king to raise revenue and stipulated the abolishment of certain administrative courts. Parliament also demanded the king to convene Parliament every three years and commanded Charles to remove certain individuals from power.

This last demand eventually led to the execution of Laud and one of Charles’s councilors, Thomas Wentworth, the earl of Strafford. Charles attempted to intimidate Parliament by ordering the imprisonment of five individuals who held influence in the House of Commons, but they fled. Charles chose to take drastic measures against Parliament and assembled an army at Nottingham in 1642, leading to the start of the English Civil War.

English Civil War

The English Civil War lasted from 1642 to 1649, as the Stuart cause gained a lot of support from the northern and western sections of England and the rural areas. The parliamentary forces possessed a great deal of support from southern and eastern England certain urbanized areas of the country.

A Puritan named Oliver Cromwell was instrumental to the parliamentary cause as his armies won important victories at Marston Moor in 1644 and Naseby in 1645 and forced Charles to flee to the Scots for assistance.

English Civil War

This move by Charles was disastrous as the Scots handed him over to the parliamentary forces in exchange for 400,000 pounds. A debate ensued in regard to the future of Charles and the English political system. While this debate raged, a Scottish army was assembled in support of Charles but was quickly defeated. This gave the radicals another excuse to preside over a trial of Charles, which found him guilty and executed him on January 30, 1649.

The king’s son, Charles II, attempted to restore his family’s claim to the English and Scottish thrones by allying with the Scots. Charles II won Scottish support by guaranteeing the Scottish Kirk (church) instead of imposing Anglican conformity, but his army was defeated, forcing him to flee to the continent.

Following the English Civil War, Cromwell used his influence in the army and English politics to take control of the English government by assuming the position of Lord Protector. The death of Cromwell in 1658 and the subsequent political problems the English faced were enough for Parliament to seek a restoration of the Stuart monarch in 1660.

Charles II returned to England but had to accept the limitations imposed on royal authority by the English parliament. Anglicanism was made the official religion of England and Ireland, but Scotland was allowed to retain their Presbyterian Kirk.

The major dilema concerning the return of the Stuart dynasty to the English throne was the Stuart family’s Catholic leanings. Charles II was influenced by the French court and his French mother, and in 1670, he allied with Louis XIV, king of France, against the Dutch. This agreement also stipulated Charles II would proclaim himself a Catholic when the tensions between Catholicism and Protestantism diminished in England.

This agreement was a successful move in regard to foreign policy for this victory against the Dutch allowed the English to acquire the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and confirmed the superiority of English naval power over the Dutch.

Charles II died in 1685 without leaving any legitimate heirs to succeed him, causing his Catholic brother James II to ascend the thrones of England and Scotland. The accession of James II concerned some members of Parliament for they feared a Catholic monarch would stay on the throne of England for some time. James II compounded this fear by making it legal for Catholics to hold governmental positions in 1687.

It is impossible to determine whether he sought to restore the absolute powers of the monarchy, but he intended to bring Catholicism back to England. This concern over a Catholic monarch became particularly acute when James II had a son in 1688, who would certainly be raised in the Catholic faith.

The Whigs and a number of Tories engineered a plan to remove James II by inviting James II’s daughter Mary, who was Protestant, and her husband, William of Orange, to invade England and seize the English throne. William, who was looking for English support against the French, agreed to this and went ashore at Torbay on November 5, 1688, with an army numbering approximately 14,000 soldiers.

Support for James II dwindled as the English gentry and populace wanted a Protestant heir to assume the throne after James II died. This lack of support forced James II to flee to France, thereby forfeiting the Stuart claim to the English and Scottish Crowns.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

In 1989 eastern European countries of the Warsaw Pact, which had been beholden to the Soviet Union since the end of World War II, had their communist governments replaced with noncommunist governments. For the first time in over 30 years the borders between eastern and western Europe were opened.

The following year the Congress of People’s Deputies changed the Soviet constitution and removed the Communist Party’s monopoly from the constitution by allowing multiple parties. In March the Baltic States held elections and their national independence parties gained majorities in each of the republics. At this time Lithuania decided to declare its independence from the Soviet Union, the first republic to do so.

In June 1990 Russia declared its right to rule itself separate from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. During the remainder of the summer the other republics also declared their right to self-rule. Mikhail Gorbachev tried to find a way to salvage the Soviet Union.


His efforts were to be put to a vote in August 1991, but hard-line communists launched an unsuccessful coup in Moscow. The failed coup brought the Communist Party down, and none of the republics was interested in trying to save the Soviet Union. On Christmas Day 1991 Gorbachev resigned, ending the Soviet Union.

Throughout 1989 Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria, which had been under Soviet control since the end of World War II, established democratic governments and cut their ties with the Soviet Union.

Seeing these events, the Baltic countries started to voice their desire to be free of the Soviet Union also. The Baltic countries had been absorbed by the Soviet Union as part of a treaty (the Nazi-Soviet Pact) it had made with Nazi Germany in 1939.

Gorbachev did not care how a republic had come to be part of the Soviet Union; in his view none of the republics should be allowed to leave the Soviet Union. Seeing the events in eastern Europe only encouraged the Baltic republics. Attempts to buy off the republics with token freedoms only encouraged them to continue to push for separation from the Soviet Union.

Following the Baltic republics’ lead was the Moldavian Republic. Originally part of Romania, Moldavia was given to the Soviet Union as part of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Independence movements also appeared in the Trans-Caucasian region of the Soviet Union, made up of the republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

In Armenia and Azerbaijan, the growth in nationalistic parties also led to a dispute between them over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In Georgia, the massacre of female protesters in the capital of Tbilisi in April 1989 only fueled the desire to be free of the Soviet Union.

In early February 1990, the Communist Party’s Central Committee met to consider a draft anjuran to allow multiple parties. The congress also created the office of the president of the Soviet Union and elected Gorbachev to the office.

After the congress, in April, Gorbachev announced the Law of Secession, which laid out the process that the republics would have to follow in order to gain their independence. The process was long and drawn out.

Lithuanian president: Vytautas Landsbergis

One of the first uses of the law was to pressure Lithuania to do as the Soviet government said or face the consequences. Lithuanian president Vytautas Landsbergis refused, saying that a foreign power had no right to make decisions about how his country should be run. On April 18, the Soviet government started an economic blockade of Lithuania.

The Soviets lifted the blockade on June 29 when the Lithuanian parliament suspended the independence decree. Latvia (May 4) and Estonia (May 8) followed Lithuania’s lead, and even though Gorbachev outlawed their decrees, they did not suffer the blockade as Lithuania did.

The Baltic republics were not the only ones moving toward independence. In Russia, the Russian Supreme Soviet elected Boris Yeltsin as chairman on May 29. Running against 13 other candidates, Yeltsin introduced a platform that pushed for Russian sovereignty in the Soviet Union, making Russian law take precedent over Soviet law; provided for multiparty democracy; and declared that Russia should conduct its own foreign policy with all other countries, including other republics of the Soviet Union. The actual declaration came on June 12, 1990, at which time Russia also declared its right to control the natural resources of its country. Other republics followed suit.

Through the end of 1990 Lithuania continued to try to work out a deal with the Soviet government, but the Soviets continued to stall. Therefore, on January 2, 1991, Landsbergis withdrew the suspension of the independence decree. In response to this action, paramilitary police in Vilnius (the capital of Lithuania) and Riga (the capital of Latvia) seized various buildings.

Then on January 7 the Soviet Ministry of Defense ordered troops into all three of the Baltic States as well as Moldavia, Georgia, and the Ukraine. The Soviet military continued to occupy buildings belonging to the Lithuanian government, and on January 13 it attacked the capital’s television center and in the process killed 14 people and wounded over 200.

At about the same time, Gorbachev was telling the Soviet government that force would not be used against the people of Lithuania. These contradictory actions and talk hurt Gorbachev, who claimed not to have had any advanced knowledge of what the military was going to do.

A few days later, on January 20, violence broke out in Latvia when Soviet paramilitary police stormed a government building in Latvia and killed two local police officers. The Baltic republics gained support from Russia when Yeltsin signed a document recognizing the independence of the Baltic States on behalf of Russia, which was exerting its right to conduct its own foreign policy separate from that of the Soviet Union.

Although the Baltic republics had started out leading the move toward independence from the Soviet Union, Russia now began to take a more prominent role. In January 1991 Gorbachev issued a decree that the Soviet army was to patrol the streets of the larger cities in the Soviet Union to help stop crime and control protests; Russia objected.

When Yeltsin attacked Gorbachev during a television interview, Yeltsin found himself under attack by various groups. Although Gorbachev’s actions might be decidedly anti-independence for the republics, he still had the support of many of the people in the Soviet Union and Western countries.

On March 17, 1991, the idea of maintaining a union of the republics was put to a vote of the people of the Soviet Union. The vote passed, although six of the republics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldavia) did not participate in the referendum since they claimed that they were not part of the Soviet Union.

Yeltsin claimed that the referendum was nothing more then an attempt by Gorbachev to generate support for his leadership. Gorbachev then called a conference and invited Yeltsin and the presidents of eight other republics to talk about a anjuran for a new Union Treaty and new Union Constitution. Gorbachev and the other presidents signed a declaration supporting the drafting of a new treaty and constitution.

May saw more changes as the republics continued to move away from the Soviet Union. On May 5 the Russian branch of the KGB separated itself from the Soviet Union’s institution. Moldavia changed its official name to the Moldavian Republic, dropping the words Soviet and Socialist. Then on May 26 Georgia had its first-ever direct presidential election.

The Coup

Coup to remove Gorbachev from power (1)

Gorbachev and Yeltsin continued to work out the details of the new Union Treaty. The treaty would keep the Soviet Union alive, but would limit the areas over which it could exercise control and make participation in the union voluntary. Before the treaty was enacted, a group of hard-line communists launched a coup to remove Gorbachev from power. The coup lasted for only three days.

The committee in charge of the coup announced a state of emergency and placed Gorbachev under house arrest, cutting off his ability to communicate with the outside world. They then tried to get him to sign a decree declaring a state of emergency, but he refused. With Gorbachev’s refusal to cooperate, the coup started to come unraveled.

The plotters had planned to arrest Yeltsin also, but missed their chance. Instead, Yeltsin went to the Russian Parliament building and appealed to the citizens of Moscow to ignore the unlawful coup. The military was unwilling to move against the civilians, and the coup ended on August 21.

Gorbachev returned to Moscow. Because of the coup, Yeltsin became the satria of the hour, and his popularity grew rapidly. Unfortunately for Gorbachev, his popularity plummeted and accelerated the decline of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin forced Gorbachev to return control of the natural resources and enterprises on Russian territory back to Russia from the Soviet Union.

Coup to remove Gorbachev from power (2)

December saw the Soviet Union brought to an end. On December 1 the Ukraine held a referendum to allow the people to vote in support of or against the declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. The referendum passed by a wide margin.

Then the leaders of Russia, the Ukraine, and Belarus met to determine the future of the Soviet Union and their republics. On December 8 they announced the end of the Soviet Union and the creation of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Membership in the CIS was open to all former members of the Soviet Union and any other state interested in joining.

On December 12 Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan joined the CIS. More meetings were held on December 21, and Moldavia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia joined. During this meeting the republics agreed to abolish the position of president of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev still held the position, but on December 25, he announced his resignation. With Gorbachev’s resignation the remaining members of the Soviet Parliament had the Soviet flag removed from the Kremlin, and at midnight on December 31, 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

Post Soviet Union states: Armenia(1), Azerbaijan(2), Belarus(3), Estonia(4),
Georgia(5), Kazakhstan(6), Kyrgyzstan(7), Latvia(8), Lithuania(9), Moldova(10),
Russia(11), Tajikistan(12), Turkmenistan(13), Ukraine(14), Uzbekistan(15)

Rhodesia/Zimbabwe Independence Movements

Zimbabwe, or Rhodesia, as it was known until 1980, is a landlocked nation of 13 million people occupying the plateau between the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers, bordered by Zambia to the north, Botswana to the west, Mozambique to the east, and South Africa to the south.

While the rest of Britain’s African colonies, including two of Rhodesia’s neighbors—Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi)—gained independence as part of a wave of decolonization, Rhodesia remained a bastion of minority white rule because of its influential European population. Even after the country gained majority rule in 1980, white control of land continued to be a crucial issue in Zimbabwe.

At midcentury, mostly because of the country’s substantial mineral wealth and fertile soil for tobacco cultivation, Rhodesia’s white population enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world.


The country’s black residents, however, who made up over 95 percent of the population, possessed little political power and received just 5 percent of the nation’s income. Having gained control by force roughly a half-century earlier, whites made up one-twentieth of the population but held one-third of the land.

At the end of World War II the political winds began to change. Britain moved to grant independence to many of its colonies in Asia and Africa. Rhodesia, which had been a British-chartered corporate colony at the turn of the century and a self-governing British colony since 1923, took on a new political form in 1953 with the establishment of the Central African Federation. Southern Rhodesia dominated this confederation; it exploited the copper of Northern Rhodesia and the labor of Nyasaland.

The arrival of independent rule in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi) in 1964 brought considerable anxiety to the white population of Southern Rhodesia, who believed that Britain favored majority rule.

In response, in November of 1965, Ian Douglas Smith, an unabashed champion of white rule, announced the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, which cut the country’s ties with Britain and established the independent nation of Rhodesia. In a referendum, overwhelming numbers of the white population supported Smith. Britain responded by imposing diplomatic and economic sanctions.

The cold war struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union for influence around the world, including in the nations of Africa, complicated these developments. U.S. relations with Ian Smith’s white-ruled Rhodesia at the time shows the ambivalent position of the United States.

On the one hand the United States valued the support of Rhodesia, which contained vast reserves of strategic minerals, especially chromium, and adopted a strongly anticommunist stance. Yet, at the same time, the United States worried that support for Smith’s white supremacist government would cost it needed friends in rapidly decolonizing Africa.

In 1965 U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson condemned Smith’s unilateral declaration of independence and, following Britain’s lead, imposed economic sanctions. Although these sanctions could have been even stronger, U.S. trade there declined from $29 million in 1965 to $3.7 million in 1968, a real blow to the Rhodesian economy. At the same time, though, Rhodesia received substantial support from some within the United States.

The Byrd Amendment of 1971, which was enacted with the support of the Richard Nixon administration, punched a significant hole in the sanctions against Rhodesia. According to this law, the United States could not ban the importation from a non-communist nation any material needed for national defense if that same material would otherwise be purchased from a communist nation.

Since chromium, a key resource for many modern weapon systems, was also imported from the Soviet Union, the United States was forced to allow trade with Rhodesia. Imports of chromium grew from $500,000 in 1965, to $13 million in 1972, to $45 million in 1975.

Organized black resistance to white rule in Rhodesia took shape in the late 1950s, and the two main oppositional parties, parties that would dominate Zimbabwean politics well beyond independence, were established in the early 1960s.

In 1957 the African National Congress, based in Bulawayo, and the African National Youth League, based in Salisbury (present-day Harare), combined to form the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress under Joshua Nkomo. Banned in 1959, this group was succeeded by the National Democratic Party, which was itself banned in December 1961.

Shortly thereafter, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) was established. A major split occurred in 1963, resulting in the formation of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). ZAPU was mostly Ndebele and Chinese-leaning; ZANU was mostly Shona and Soviet-leaning.

ZAPU and ZANU adopted different strategies at different times. During the 1960s, as white Rhodesians like Ian Smith grew more extreme, African nationalist methods became more militant and confrontational.

Both ZANU and ZAPU began attacking white farms in 1964, but they quickly realized they were outmatched by the Rhodesian military. A more moderate group, the African National Council—organized by Bishop Abel Muzorewa—sprang up during the early 1970s. None of these groups had much success.

The situation began to shift during the late 1970s. In 1975, after long wars, two Portuguese colonies in southern Africa, Mozambique and Angola, gained their independence. Black-ruled Mozambique became a safe haven for many of the guerrilla groups opposing the white regime in Rhodesia. In 1975 the two most important of these groups—ZANU, under Robert Mugabe, and ZAPU, under Joshua Nkomo—joined forces to become the Patriotic Front.

Jimmy Carter’s victory in the U.S. presidential election of 1976 also played a role in shifting the context of Rhodesian politics. Concerned about the U.S. reputation in other parts of black Africa, the Carter administration began to push for a settlement to the conflict. In general, the United States supported majority rule with protection of white interests.

The British called the Lancaster House Conference in an attempt to broker a lasting solution. The resulting settlement guaranteed majority rule for Zimbabwe, a transitional period for whites, and a multiparty system.

At the center of the settlement was a new constitution, which gave the vote to all Africans 18 years and older, reserved 28 seats in the parliament for whites for 10 years, and guaranteed private property rights. In the election of February 1980, voting mostly followed ethnic lines. ZANU–Popular Front won a clear majority, making its leader, Robert Mugabe, the prime minister.

ZAPU–Popular Front, which had recently split from ZANU-PF, joined the white members of parliament in opposition. Taking its name from the 14th- and 15th-century stone city of Great Zimbabwe, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980. The war for majority rule, which had cost over 25,000 lives, most of them black, was over.

Under Robert Mugabe’s rule, Zimbabwe in the 1980s pursued socialist-leaning policies not unlike those of many other countries in Africa. It expanded social programs that had been denied under white rule. And, although it claimed to want to redistribute land, in reality it moved slowly to break up successful white farms.

This cost the regime politically but it enabled Zimbabwe to continue to feed itself. Overall, during the early 1980s many Zimbabweans saw real improvements in the quality of their lives.

As the 1980s unfolded, Mugabe began to show authoritarian tendencies. Even early on he rounded up opponents, censored the press, and gave broad authority to security forces. At first he was able to get away with this because of his wide support, especially in rural areas.

Mugabe won the March 1996 election with 92.7 percent of the vote, but only a very small number of Zimbabweans bothered to vote. The decrease in voter participation revealed the growing discontent of Zimbabweans with Mugabe. On top of this, in the early 1980s a civil war that would last until 1987 broke out in Matabeleland, a stronghold of the ZAPU-PF.

In the late 1990s Mugabe initiated two very controversial programs. In 1997, he began seizing white-owned land without compensation and quietly encouraging landless blacks to move onto white farms. These farms had previously fed the nation and provided work for large numbers of people, mostly black.

In 2002 Mugabe appropriated the remaining white land and ordered white farmers to offer payments to former workers. Because many of the blacks who moved onto the white land had few farming skills, the nation soon faced a food crisis.

Critics, moreover, claimed that Mugabe handed out the best land to his family, friends, and close supporters. In another controversial move, in 1998 Mugabe deployed the military in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help its government fend off an armed rebellion.

The situation in Zimbabwe seems precarious. During the 2002 elections Mugabe rigged the voting and jailed opponents, especially the supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Neighboring nations supported Mugabe but other African nations, such as Kenya and Ghana, condemned his move.

Famine conditions persist in Zimbabwe, and the people struggle with skyrocketing prices and extremely high unemployment. That no system is in place to determine a successor to the aging Mugabe portends a divisive struggle to come.

Sejong - Korean King

Sejong - Korean King

The fourth king of the Yi dynasty of Korea, King Sejong, ruled from 1418 until his death in 1450 was one of the most famous rulers in Korean history, and one of only two to have the title “the Great.” During his reign there was stability in Korea, and also major advances in literature and the arts, in particular the introduction of a new script.

King Sejong was born on May 6, 1397, the third son of King Taejong (r. 1400–18). When he was 10 years old, he gained the title Grand Prince Chunghyeong. He ascended the throne in 1418, at the age of 21, and his oldest brother, Prince Yangnyong Taegun, was overlooked to become king because the royal family regarded him as too headstrong and impetuous and the second brother had predeceased his father.

One of King Sejong’s first moves was to secure the southern parts of Korea against attacks by Japanese pirates who were launching raids on Korean coastal villages. He did this by sending soldiers to Tsushima, where they fended off seaborne attacks.


In the north, Sejong oversaw the building of four castles and six military posts, which were built to prevent problems with the new Ming dynasty in China. He also encouraged many people from central Korea to move to the north to help build the economy of the region and ensure continued stability.

King Sejong’s greatest legacy to Korea was his introduction of the Han’gul script. The Chiphyonjon, a royal institute that conducted research on behalf of the king, introduced this new script.

The institute compiled a long series of official histories of Korea and treatises on Confucian ideas and also organized many history talks increasing the knowledge of the royal family and the nobility in the history of Korea.

With no suitable Korean script, the Koreans had been using Chinese characters or Hanja to express their language. With Han’gul, although many Chinese words remained, it was possible to have new characters that better reflected Korean pronunciation and inflexions.

The new script was purely phonetic and is believed to have developed from Sanskrit, or even Tibetan. Sejong would have likely come across these scripts while reading religious books.

Sejong statue

The new script was a move heavily opposed by many scholars, but Sejong, a linguist and an autocrat, pushed for Han’gul to become accepted. This gained Sejong the title “the alphabet king.” A dictionary was published soon afterward.

In 1420 after only two years on the throne, Sejong had established the Jiphyeonjeon or “Hall of Worthies” in the royal palace in Seoul, where he persuaded many visiting scholars to remain. During his reign scholars compiled 20 major works on Korean agriculture, astronomy, history, geography, mathematics, military history, science, pharmacology, and philosophy.

Of particular note were encyclopedias of Chinese and Korean medicine. During the 1440s King Sejong himself wrote a number of books. Yongbi Eocheon Ga (Songs of flying dragons) was written in 1445 and followed two years later by Seokbo Sangjeol (Episodes from the life of Buddha).

In June 1447 he wrote Worin Cheon-gang Jigok (Songs of the moon shining on a thousand rivers), a series of poems praising Lord Buddha, and in September of that year helped with the compilation of Dongguk Jeong-un (Dictionary of correct Sino-Korean pronunciation).

In terms of justice Sejong started a process of codifying the laws. He massively reduced the amount of corporal punishment that could be inflicted and established two levels of courts of appeal by which people under sentence of death could have evidence in their trial tested before further judges, and available for inspection by the king, prior to sentencing and execution.

Sejong is also credited with the invention of the rain gauge, self-striking water clock, and the sundial. Critics of Sejong point out the pervasive nature of slavery during his reign and that he did little (if anything) to help slaves.

Some had been sentenced to slavery for criminal actions, but most had been born into slavery and lived their lives in terrible conditions either as domestic hands in the cities or as farm laborers in the countryside. In addition, Sejong continued the system of court eunuchs, who wielded much power in the extravagant court.

King Sejong married Sim On (1395–1446) of Cheongsong, later awarded the title Princess Consort Soheon (or Sohon Shimn). They had eight sons and two daughters—the first son, Munjong, would succeed, followed by his son, Tanjong, and then the second son, Sejo.

Sejong and his first concubine, Kim Shinbin (1406–65), had six more sons. With his second concubine, Yang Hyebin, he had three further sons. His third concubine gave him another son, and his fourth and fifth concubines, another two daughters. King Sejong died in 1450 and was buried at Yong Nung.

His son Munjong succeeded him. A street in central Seoul is named after King Sejong, as is the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. He also appears on the South Korean 10,000 won banknote. From King Sejong’s older brother descend the family of Syngman Rhee, who became president of South Korea from 1948 until 1960.

Abbas the Great of Persia

Abbas the Great of Persia

Shah Abbas the Great reigned from 1588 to 1629 during the zenith of Safavid glory and power. He effectively unified all of historic Persia and centralized the state and its bureaucracy.

Using loyal slave soldiers (ghulam) recruited among Caucasians, Abbas successfully destroyed the influence of the Qazilbash princes and extended Crown-owned land taken from defeated local rulers. With English advisers, he moved to reform the army into a successful fighting force.

In the Ottoman-Safavid Wars, Abbas was generally successful. He conquered northwest Persian and in 1623 took Baghdad and then Basra in southern present-day Iraq from the Ottomans. His forces seized Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in 1622, thereby extending Safavid power along this important seafaring trade route.


By the time Abbas came to power, the majority of the people in Safavid Persia, who had previously been Sunni Muslims, had become Shi’i. Qom and Mashad, sites holy in Shi’i tradition, were enlarged into centers for pilgrimages, and the veneration of Shi’i imams became widespread.

The martyrdom of Husayn, Ali’s son, was annually commemorated in massive passion plays and ceremonies; pilgrimages to Kerbala, in present-day Iraq, where Husayn had been killed, became a major event for devout Shi’i.

However, unlike many of his predecessors, Abbas encouraged religious tolerance. He encouraged foreign traders, especially Christian Armenians, who were known as skilled silk producers, to move to Iran. Although the sale of silk became a royal monopoly, Abbas provided Armenians financial inducements, including interest-free loans for building houses and businesses, to move to the outskirts of Isfahan.

In 1592, Abbas made Isfahan his new capital and turned it into a center for Safavid arts, culture, and commerce. Under Abbas, Isfahan’s population grew to more than one-half million people and became a major trading center.

He sent envoys to Venice, the Iberian Peninsula, and eastern Europe to encourage trade in luxury textiles and other goods; he also provided tax incentives to foreign traders. By 1617, the East India Trade Company had established trading posts along Persian Gulf, and Bandar Abbas became a major port. Along northern routes, the Safavids also enjoyed a lively trade with Russia.

As befitted 16th- and 17th-century monarchs, Abbas presided over a lavish court. He was the patron to numerous court poets and painters, even allowing portraits of himself and members of his court to be painted.

Like Suleiman I the Magnificent of the rival Ottoman Empire, Abbas, who had killed or blinded several of his sons, left no able successor. After his death, the Safavid empire entered into a century-long period of decline. It is a tribute to Abbas’s abilities as an eksekutif and leader that the empire survived as long as it did.

Hojo Clan

Hojo clan symbol

Members of this Japanese family were warriors or warlords during the Kamakura Shogunate and rose to the rank of shikken (hereditary regents) from 1203 until 1333. They traced their descent from Taira Sadamori, with the founder of the family, Tokiie, taking the surname Hojo while he was living in Hojo, in Izu Province (modern-day Shizuoka prefecture).

As the Hojo are therefore descended from the Taira, it makes them distantly related to the Japanese imperial family. However, with their base in the province of Izu, in the east, they were far from the center of power in Kyoto.

Hojo Tokiie had a son Tokikata, and Tokikata’s son, Tokimasa, helped the Minamoto family after they were defeated in 1160. The head of the clan, Minamoto Yoshitomo, was executed, but his three sons were spared. Two were sent as monks to monasteries, while the eldest, Yoritomo, was exiled to Izu where he was looked after by the Hojo.

The boy was only 13 years old at the time. In 1180 Yoritomo married Tokimasa’s daughter Hojo Masako, tying the two families together. As a result when the Gempei War broke out in 1180, Tokimasa supported his son-in-law in what became a rebellion against the rule by Taira Kiyomori, in spite of a distant familial connection with the Taira.


At the end of the Gempei War in 1185, Yoritomo was clearly worried about his own safety and decided not to go to Kyoto straight away. Instead he sent Tokimasa to Kyoto with the intention of capturing Minamoto Yoshitsune, brother and rival of Yoritomo. However he managed to persuade the court to allow Yoritomo to be given the power to appoint military governors.

This and various other moves allowed Yoritomo to establish the Kamakura Shogunate, which was officially formed in 1192. When Yoritomo died in 1199, Tokimasa and his daughter Masako conspired against the next shogun, Minatomo Yoriie. Yoriie despised the Hojo family, who he felt were too powerful.

Yoshiie’s first move was against Kajiwara Kagetoki, governor of Sagami, who was executed in 1200. Although most scholars believe that Yoshiie was behind the death, Tokimasa benefited by being able to seize the territory of Sagami.

Tokimasa then decided to move first and forced the new shogun to give him (Tokimasa) the office of regent in 1203. His plan was to form an alliance with Minamoto Sanetomo, who would become shogun when Yoshiie died, and divide the country between Yoshiie’s son and Sanetomo.

A plan was drawn up by the shogun to assassinate Tokimasa, but the shikken acted first. He had Yoshiie’s son, Ichiman (who was also Tokimasa’s grandson), and then went to Kamakura, where Yoshiie, gravely ill and in bed, abdicated and was then murdered in the following year.

This left Minamoto Sanetomo as the new shogun. Tokimasa embarked on another conspiracy at the urging of his second wife, Maki Kata, who wanted to get rid of Sanetomo and replace him with her son-in-law Hiraga Tomomasa. This time Masako and her brother Hojo Yoshitoki decided this was one step too far and eased Tokimasa from office with Yoshitoki taking on the office of shikken in 1205. Tokimasa retired to a Buddhist monastery in Kamakura and died 10 years later, aged 78.

Yoshitoki (1163–1224) had fought alongside his father in the Gempei War and in various political machinations until 1205 when he and his older sister managed to oust their father. After several years of consolidating his power base, Yoshitoki decided to attack the Wada family in 1213, becoming head of the Board of Retainers, a position that had previously been held by Wada Yoshimori.

Masako and Yoshitoki then decided to seize power, their position made easier by the assassination of Minamoto Sanetomo, the shogun, in 1219. In the Jokyu disturbance of 1221 the retired emperor Go-Toba tried to overthrow the Kamakura Shogunate and the Hojo family, who at that stage were in real control, but failed, leaving most believing that the real power in the land now rested not with the emperors but with the shogun and the shikken.

Yoshitoki quickly extended the power of the shogun over the entire country. In 1224 Yoshitoki died suddenly of an illness, aged 61. Yoshitoki’s his first child, Hojo Yasutoki, succeeded him as shikken. His sister Masako died in 1225 aged 69.

Hojo Yasutoki (1183–1242), the third shikken, immediately set out to strengthen the political position of the Hojo clan. In 1218 he had become chief of the samurai dokoro (military office) and three years later led the shogun’s forces against the imperial palace in Kyoto.

Remaining in Kyoto, he oversaw the capital until the death of his father, when he took over the running of the regency. He appointed his uncle Hojo Tokifusa as the first rensho (cosigner) and in 1226 established the Hyojoshu (Council of State).

In 1232 he promulgated the Goseibai Shikimoku, which codified the shogunate for the first time, ensuring that the system of shogun would not be challenged until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. When he died in 1242, his son Tokiuji had predeceased him, and his grandson Tsunetoki succeeded him.

Tsunetoki (1224–46) was the fourth shikken but died after four years in office, to be replaced by his younger brother Tokiyori (1227–63), who became the fifth shikken. As soon as Tokiyori came to power he was faced with a coup planned by a former shogun, Kujo Yoritsine, and a relative, Nagoe Mitsutoki.

Tokiyori was married to a daughter of the commander, Adachi Kagemori, and he sent his grandfather against his opponents, who were defeated at the Battle of Hochi. His uncle, Hojo Shigetoki, was then recalled from Kyoto and appointed rensho. In 1252 Tokiyori had sufficient power to depose the shogun and replace him with Prince Munetaka.

Tokiyori wanted administrative reforms and in 1249 established the Hikitsuke, which served as a high court for the country. However three years later he stopped official discussions in the council of the shogunate and instead held meetings at his house. In 1256 he decided to step down as shikken and become a monk. It is said that in the years before his death in 1263, he traveled around Japan in disguise to see for himself the actual conditions of the people in the countryside.

The next shikken, Nagatoki (1230–64), was a cousin, being the grandson of Yoshitoki, the second shikken. He was regent until his death in 1264 and was replaced by his uncle Masamura (1205–73), who was the seventh shikken from 1264 until his resignation on April 12, 1268. He was succeeded by Tokimune (1251–84), the eldest son of Tokiyori. He had been rensho before becoming shikken in 1268.

His term as regent was extremely difficult as Japan was faced with the constant threat of a Mongol invasion. Kubilai Khan had sent an embassy in 1268, but the Japanese treated his men with some disdain. Preparations were made for the invasion of Japan and Tokimune had to strengthen defenses around the southwestern coast of Japan, repairing forts and building new ones.

In November 1274 the Mongols attacked Japan with 30,000 soldiers in 800 ships. The initial Japanese response was weak and they were surprised by the Mongol and Korean methods of fighting. The Mongols took over several Japanese islands on their way to Kyushu. Some of the samurai facing the Mongols advanced forward, and the Mongols, who charged as a large mass, overwhelmed them.

Those who survived sent frantic messages to Kyoto that a mighty invasion force was on its way. By the time the Mongols reached Kyushu, the locals had prepared defenses and the invaders were short of supplies. Their fleet, in Hakata harbor, was vulnerable, so to prevent a night attack, the Mongols pulled out their fleet. A typhoon smashed the Mongol fleet, destroying many ships.

The Mongols left on land were quickly surrounded and cut to pieces by the Japanese. The Mongol fleet limped back to Korea having lost 13,000 men, and Tokimune received much credit from the Japanese people for having saved the country from its first attempted invasion.

Tokimune, worried about another attack, quickly built a long stone defensive wall along Hakata Bay. In 1581 the Mongols attacked again, this time with 200,000 men and more than 4,000 ships. The southern fleet, from southern China, left a month earlier than the northern (or eastern) fleet, which sailed from Korea. This time the Japanese were waiting for them. Once again weather intervened and the invaders again lost a large part of their fleet in a storm.

It was said that nearly two-thirds of the attackers were killed. The Hojo government faced a new masalah of rewarding the samurai who had fought the Mongols, and also building shrines to pay tribute to the supernatural forces that had defeated the invaders. Although best remembered for his role in preventing two invasions, Tokimune was also involved in the building of the Engakuji temple in Kamakura in 1282.

Tokimune died in 1284 and was succeeded by his son Sadatoki (1271–1311). Tokimune was the last strong shikken and after his death the Hojo clan was on the decline. Sadatoki was only 14 when he became shikken and was placed under the guardianship of Taira Yoritsuna.

At this point the Adachi family decided to challenge the Hojos, but some scholars suspect that the plot might have been concocted by Taira Yoritsuna to get rid of Adachi Yasumori (who was Sadatoki’s grandfather-in-law), who had become a serious rival. In 1285 an attack on the Adachi family, known as the Shimotsuki Incident, resulted in the death of some 500 members of the family and its retainers.

Hojo clan shogun

Eight years later, men loyal to Sadatoki killed Taira Yoritsuna and some 90 of his followers in what became known as the Heizen Gate Incident. In 1301 Sadatoki handed power over to his first cousin Morotaki (1275–1311), who became the 10th shikken from 1301 until his death in 1311. For many years, Sadatoki continued to run the country until his own death at Engakuji.

The 11th shikken was Munenobu (1259–1312), a distant cousin, who was only shikken for less than two years. Another distant cousin, Hirotaki (1279–1315), succeeded him as shikken for three years. Then another cousin, Mototaki (d. 1333), became shikken for two more years.

Sadatoki’s son Takatoki (1303–33) then became shikken from 1316 until 1326. He was the last effective shikken, dominating the shogunate even after he retired, and was succeeded by a distant cousin, Sadaaki (1278–1333), who became the 15th shikken in 1326. The 16th, and last shikken, was Moritoki (d. 1333), who a great-grandson of Nagatoki, the sixth shikken, r. 1326–33.

In 1333 the two lead army commanders, Ashikaga Takauji and Nitta Yoshisada, turned against the Hojo family and supported Emperor Go-Daigo and the imperial restoration movement, which became known as the Kemmu Restoration. Faced with inevitable defeat, the, 14th, 15th and 16th shikken all committed suicide, in addition to many relatives.