- 6 weeks ago
Some decisions echo through generations... Join us as we explore the historical events that continue to shape our world today! From hasty partitions to covert operations, these moments show how the past still dictates our present politics, social structures, and cultural divides.
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00:00It was economically expedient to enslave people and to make that slavery perpetual and hereditary.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for historical events that not only shaped history,
00:14but still echo in today's politics, society, and culture.
00:18But as negotiations get underway, Wilson quickly realizes that each country has come to the table with their own agenda.
00:26The partition of British India in 1947 gave rise to the creation of two nations, India and Pakistan.
00:36One of the largest, most ethnically diverse nations in the world has been divided.
00:42One country will now become two, India and Pakistan.
00:48As a British barrister draws a line on a map, a once peaceful land implodes.
00:53The division was a harried affair, marking the beginning of one of the greatest migrations in human history.
00:59The mass migrations triggered horrific communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.
01:04Millions became displaced, with many more dying in the ensuing chaos.
01:08The decision was largely defined by religious lines and frictions.
01:12Partition unleashed a wave of bloodshed.
01:15One of the central flashpoints was Punjab.
01:17People who suddenly found themselves in the wrong country had to flee from their ancestral homes,
01:21on foot, on bullock carts, or by chain.
01:24The partition continues to profoundly influence the South Asian political landscape,
01:29as evidenced by the fraught relationship between the neighboring nations.
01:32While independence was a welcome change,
01:35the partition served as a stark warning of the challenges of decolonization,
01:39nation-building, and the lasting human cost of political decisions made under immense pressure.
01:44The border created in 1947 would become the focus for three wars
01:49and 60 years of animosity between the government of India and Pakistan.
01:54The CIA-backed coup in Iran.
01:57Who would have thought that refusing to concede to Western oil demands
02:00would result in a covert coup d'etat?
02:02The military action culminated months of secret planning
02:05by British and American intelligence agencies
02:08as part of a plot to overthrow the Iranian government.
02:12But that is exactly what happened in 1953,
02:15when the CIA orchestrated a coup that overthrew Iran's democratically elected prime minister,
02:21Mohammad Mosaddegh.
02:22The prime minister had nationalized the oil industry.
02:25In an effort to protect British oil interests,
02:27the U.S. supported a coup to restore the Shah's authoritarian rule.
02:32An American-backed general became the new prime minister
02:35to form a government that expanded the powers of the Shah.
02:39The U.S.'s intervention led to deepening rifts and instabilities,
02:43culminating in the 1979 Iranian revolution
02:46and enduring anti-American sentiment that persists today.
02:50The coup is a classic example of foreign interference
02:53and Cold War-era covert operations
02:55that prioritized geopolitical interests over democracy and human rights.
03:00The memory of 1953 would linger in the minds of Iranians for years to come.
03:07The use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War
03:09Agent Orange is a toxic herbicide that featured prominently during the Vietnam War.
03:14During the Vietnam War,
03:16Americans were told that spraying millions of acres of dense jungle with Agent Orange
03:20would deprive the Viet Cong of cover and save G.I.'s lives.
03:24The U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of it
03:28to defoliate the dense forests of Vietnam and weed out enemy positions.
03:32While the approach was effective as a military tactic,
03:35Agent Orange caused irreparable health effects
03:38among Vietnamese civilians and soldiers and even American veterans.
03:42Thousands of Vietnam veterans think Agent Orange is now killing them.
03:46From cancers and birth defects to lingering environmental contamination,
03:50the use of the herbicide illustrates the horrific reality of chemical warfare.
03:55Agent Orange has sparked countless legal battles and demands for accountability.
03:59Today, it serves as a symbol of the long-term consequences of war
04:03extending beyond the battlefield
04:04and ongoing efforts for veteran health care and environmental restoration.
04:09The U.S. has contributed some $155 million U.S. dollars
04:13to support victims and cleanup projects in Vietnam.
04:16But as Washington continues to trim aid around the world,
04:20fears are rising that support for Agent Orange victims will disappear.
04:25And that could result in even more victims.
04:28The establishment of apartheid.
04:30In 1948, South Africa's National Party implemented a legalized system
04:34of racial segregation and discrimination.
04:37The word itself stems from the South African dialect of Dutch Afrikaans
04:40and literally means apartness.
04:42But for millions in South Africa, it held a much darker reality.
04:46It was designed to maintain white minority rule over the majority black population.
04:51From controlling where people could live, work, and socialize
04:55to enforcing inequality in every aspect of daily life,
04:58the apartheid set the stage for a brutal suppression of the opposition.
05:02The party's goal was to separate South Africa's white minority
05:05from its non-white majority,
05:07in addition to separating non-whites from each other.
05:10They did this by putting in place hundreds of race laws
05:13touching every aspect of life.
05:15The event sparked international condemnation and sanctions,
05:19but lasted several decades.
05:20It wasn't until the early 1990s that apartheid officially ended,
05:24with the election of Nelson Mandela
05:26and the establishment of a multi-racial democracy,
05:29leaving behind a legacy of racial injustice and division.
05:32The apartheid is a lesson in the dangers of institutionalized discrimination.
05:37And never again shall it be that this beautiful land
05:42will again experience the oppression of one by another.
05:48The Balfour Declaration, a statement symptomatic of human ignorance.
05:52The Balfour Declaration was a letter from the British government in 1917.
05:57Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary,
06:00penned a letter that would change the face of the Middle East.
06:03Issued during World War I, the declaration expressed support
06:07for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine,
06:11while not accounting for political and cultural complexities,
06:14not to mention the Arab population already living in the region.
06:17But the Arabs, who had been living in Palestine for centuries,
06:21turned increasingly to resistance and violence,
06:24culminating in a revolt in 1936.
06:27Contributing to decades of conflict, displacement, and war in the Middle East,
06:32the Balfour Declaration remains a controversial milestone
06:35that has affected millions of lives and reshaped international diplomacy.
06:39In retrospect, the declaration underscores the significant impact
06:42of colonial area decisions by foreign powers
06:45on various far-reaching and unresolved geopolitical events.
06:49The context is colonization.
06:51Those three forces, those three powers, are a colonized power.
06:54And they divided the land of what's so-called the Levant in that context.
06:59And they left Palestine in a way that, without a political status.
07:07The Rwandan Genocide.
07:08Ranked among the most horrific events of the 20th century
07:11is the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.
07:14Within hours, a campaign of violence spread from the Kapitokigali
07:18throughout the country, which will not stop for three months.
07:22Over a period of 100 days, ethnic Hutu extremists massacred nearly 800,000 Tutsis
07:28and some moderate Hutu and Tua people.
07:31The international community's failure to intervene
07:33left the world to watch in shock as countless lives were lost.
07:37The failure to protect the Tutsis from genocide
07:40not only played out on the ground in Rwanda,
07:43but also at the UN headquarters, where several cables were ignored.
07:48Fueled by long-lasting ethnic tensions and political power struggles,
07:52the Rwandan Genocide reshaped global policies on humanitarian intervention and peacekeeping.
07:57The mass violence that resulted in the genocide
08:00demonstrates the consequences of hatred and indifference.
08:03Rwanda's tragedy now serves to emphasize the need
08:06for the protection of vulnerable populations worldwide.
08:09It is now illegal to talk about ethnicity in Rwanda.
08:13The government says this is to prevent more bloodshed,
08:16but some say it also prevents true reconciliation
08:19and is just putting a lid on tensions,
08:23which might only boil over again in the future.
08:26The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
08:29In August 1945, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs
08:33on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
08:36The bombings forced Japan's surrender and ended World War II.
08:39The war was over.
08:43At last the troops were going home.
08:46Between 150 and 250,000 people were killed,
08:50and an entire region was poisoned by radiation.
08:53The immense civilian casualties and destruction in the aftermath of the bombings
08:57ushered in a new era known as the Atomic Age.
09:00At 11.02 a.m., the B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
09:05To this day, the bombings continue to spark fierce ethical debates about nuclear warfare.
09:10They are a powerful reminder of the human cost of nuclear war
09:14and have inspired global movements for nuclear disarmament.
09:17The Indian Removal Act.
09:19What started as negotiations in the 1830s became a systematic effort by the U.S. government
09:24to forcibly relocate Native American tribes from their ancestral lands.
09:29In 1829, Andrew Jackson was elected U.S. president.
09:34He believed that Native Americans had no rights to their land
09:38and began proceedings to remove the Cherokee from the southern states.
09:42The goal was to claim the lands for settlers.
09:44Signed by President Andrew Jackson, the act tragically led to the Trail of Tears,
09:49where thousands of indigenous people died during the relocations.
09:53Decades later, the Dawes Act of 1887 exacerbated the situation.
09:58Breaking up tribal lands into individual plots,
10:01the act further undermined indigenous tribal sovereignty and their way of life.
10:05Thousands of Native Americans were pulled from their homes in Georgia and other states across the south.
10:11Many were shackled in chains and forced to walk at gunpoint more than 1,000 miles west.
10:18The devastating effects of the two laws are still felt today in what was essentially an act of genocide.
10:24The Treaty of Versailles.
10:25World War I officially ended with this treaty on June 28, 1919.
10:31The treaty's goal was to weaken Germany and prevent further aggression.
10:34But for the winners of the war, punishing Germany was just one of their tasks.
10:40They also hoped to create something new, a future without such wars.
10:45Unfortunately, it achieved this by imposing harsh reparations and territorial losses on Germany,
10:51fueling economic hardships and political instability.
10:54These conditions made it easier for the rise of dictators like Adolf Hitler and the eventual declaration of World War II.
11:00The treaty also redrew borders and created new nations.
11:05Hundreds of people had come to Paris out of the crumbled empires of Central Europe and the Middle East.
11:11Poles, Czechs, Kurds, Ukrainians and many others wanted recognition for their causes,
11:18their ethnic and national identities, or help settling territorial disputes.
11:22Many of these decisions were made without consideration of existing ethnic and cultural realities.
11:28What was originally intended to secure a lasting peace instead became a symbol of failed diplomacy
11:34and an example of unintended consequences in international relations.
11:38The flawed legacy of 1919 would continue into the next century,
11:43leaving the League's successor, the United Nations, to respond.
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12:01The Transatlantic Slave Trade
12:06Lasting more than three centuries, the slave trade enabled the forcible transportation
12:10of millions of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
12:15Thirteen million innocent victims, just like Equiano, would be stolen from their homes and sent into slavery.
12:22Enslaved people experienced brutal conditions and were considered property under the law.
12:26The slave trade fueled the economies of European colonies and the rise of the plantation system in the Americas.
12:32The human suffering was immense.
12:35Being black in the United States was at some level a mark of slavery.
12:41Blackness was understood to be a mark of degradation, which went along with slavery.
12:48Families were torn apart forever, indigenous cultures were disrupted, and countless lives were lost.
12:53The Transatlantic Slave Trade set the foundation for systemic racism and social inequalities,
12:59with a legacy that endures to this day in the fight for civil rights across the globe.
13:04People tend to believe that slavery is a thing of the past.
13:07And interestingly, you know, in the United States particularly, we tend to pat ourselves on the back and say,
13:11well, we got rid of slavery.
13:13But there are something like 27 million people in slavery today.
13:17Which of these historic blunders do you think caused the most damage?
13:21Let us know in the comments.
13:22The letter, published on November 2nd, 1917, led to the creation of the State of Israel
13:29and would spark almost a century of conflict.
13:32One more hospitalization of Solery Big Mac.
13:33We are all together against people we've already axed our relationship to criminal investments,
13:39andocrinos of the Seconds.
13:40Looking to caucus a sodium that has been pumped just as a sophomore in his uniform.
13:41Bye-bye.
13:41You're on the Heritage Day at the end of the Heart in the Marine System...
13:43You're on the Broadcasting market.
13:44All right, everybody.
13:46Yeah.
13:47You're on the Borne.
13:47It's okay.
13:48That's it.
13:49It's so surprising.
13:50It's so amazing.
13:50You're gonna reach myider to the ignite as a major instrument.
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