What was the Cultural Revolution?
Despite the success of the Zedong Communist takeover of China, Mao felt that the educated people were posing a threat to the continuation of the revolution. He believed they were resisting the changes that were needed to improve the position of the peasants. Mao and his followers set in motion the Cultural Revolution, which stated that any person suspected of the faintest resistance to Communist rule, would be arrested, deported to outlying regions or executed.
Whole families were split up during the Cultural Revolution, and Chinese history was effectively rewritten to suit Mao’s purposes. During this period of turmoil, millions of people died from famine.
What happened in Germany in the immediate postwar years?
When the Nazis collapsed, the Allies, and particularly the Americans, found themselves in control of millions of people with no income and no work. Bombing and fighting had destroyed most German industry, and the victorious Allies took machinery and skilled workers as part-reparation for the cost of the war. It was widely decided that this situation could not be allowed to continue. The Germans should be able to support themselves again, while avoiding the injustices of the Versailles agreement which caused so much bitterness after World War I. There was a process of ‘denazification’, in which former Nazi sympathizers were removed from positions of power. In addition, new government structures were set up in the areas controlled by the Allies.
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