Books in World History series

No one knew his name. But soon millions would know about his bravery. For almost two months in spring 1989, Beijing’s Tiananmen Square had been the site of growing protests against China's hardline communist government. In early June, China’s leaders had had enough. In a matter of days soldiers cleared the square. They used sticks and cattle prods. They shot rubber bullets, then real ones. They used bayonets. Student protesters fought back with firebombs and rocks, but they were no match for the soldiers. Gunfire still rang out in parts of Beijing, but China’s leaders felt in control. As tanks rumbled through the streets near Tiananmen Square, a man in a white shirt came suddenly into view. He held up his right hand, like a police officer trying to halt traffic. The first huge tank in a row of four stopped just a few feet in front of the man. The tanks behind it stopped as well. Photographer Jeff Widener took a picture of the brave protester halting the huge armored fighting vehicles. The image was soon sent around the world, becoming one of the most famous photographs ever.

From the late 1400s to the mid-1900s, the world's great powers engaged in a virtual feeding frenzy of conquest, colonization, and often ruthless exploitation of less developed regions and populations. Only in 1970 did the United Nations outlaw colonialism. This volume documents the rise and fall of the great colonial empires in North and South Amercia, Africa, the Far East, and the Pacific region, and explores how many of the political and cultural problems the world faces today were created by the imperial and colonial practices of the past.