Snappy Answers to History Questions II

 (From Quora)

Did Japan make a mistake by entering World War Two?

For the Japanese WWII began in 1937 with the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese If the Japanese had limited their efforts to China they may have enjoyed some long term success. Their biggest mistake was allying themselves with Nazi Germany and then provoking the US into a Pacific War that they ultimately could not win. It didn’t help either that the Imperial Army and Navy were often at each other’s throats. The internal rivalry was that fierce.

Yes, with hindsight the War was a mistake for Japan. The Chinese recovered all lost territory that the Japanese had gained since the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895). Japan was left in ruins following a great deal of bombing (not to mention being on the receiving end of two Atomic bombs) with the old order coming to an inglorious end. The leadership had little option but to surrender, with total military and civilian war deaths ranging somewhere between 2.6–3.1 million. 

Why didn't Korea go through an Industrial Revolution like Europe and Japan?

From 1910–1945 Korea was directly ruled by Japan which kept the peninsula on a short leash. Prior to that the Koreans had to fight off domination by the Chinese Qing dynasty. It was only after WWII and the subsequent Korean War (1950–1953) that the South could develop into the economic and industrial powerhouse that they are today (it is one of the Four Tigers).The embrace of Free Enterprise was critical.

Ironically the North, which prior to WWII was actually more industrialized than its southern counterpart, took a turn in the opposite direction. Its authoritarian regime structure and highly managed centralized economy has ensured that the North Korean nation state remains mired in poverty and devoid of the critical elements of human freedom.

Why was the French Revolution a slide into a bloodthirsty madness?

Without constraints on what it wants to achieve revolutions often have a tendency of eating themselves alive. No doctrine becomes pure enough and eventually those who seek to negate eventually negate themselves. This happened with the French Revolution. It needed the ‘other’ to demonstrate forward movement when that option became limited all that was left was bloodshed to keep the Hegelian march off the cliff of sanity going.