Recently a number of bloggers have been listing and debating what are the ten most important events in the history of modern France. I personally believe that French history has been done to death and there is nothing more to say on the subject. It has all been written about numerous times in several languages. Other areas of the world, however, have not been so well covered. Below I present what I think are the 12 most important events in the history of modern Kazakhstan followed by a similar list for modern Arizona.
Kazakhstan
1. Russian conquest and settlement
2. 1916 Uprising
3. Bolshevik Revolution and Civil War
4. Demarcation of national borders
5. Soviet promotion of national cadres and culture in the 1920s
6. Collectivization of agriculture and the famine of the 1930s
7. Industrialization
8. Mass influx of national deportees during World War II
9. Virgin Lands Campaign
10. Consolidation of Kazakh cadres under Kunaev
11. Glasnost and Perestroika
12. Independence
Arizona
1. Mexican-American War
2. Formation of the Territory of New Mexico
3. Gadsen Purchase
4. Civil War
5. Formation of the Federal Territory of Arizona
6. The Long Walk
7. Development of the cattle industry
8. Apache Wars
9. Development of the copper mining industry
10. Development of the rail network
11. Formation of the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association
12. Admission of Arizona to the United States as the 48th state
Tombstone existed because of silver mining. But, silver was not nearly as important as copper. Really only in the 1870s and 1880s was silver mining a major industry in Arizona. After that copper was the most important mineral resource in the territory.
ReplyDeletei think i can figure out why arizona but if you don't mind me asking was there a particular reason for kazakhstan?
ReplyDeleteWell the guy who wrote the original post on France lives in Massachusetts. My Ph.D. is from SOAS and my dissertation as well as much of my published work deals with Kazakhstan. In particular the influx of national deportees to the territory during World War II.
ReplyDelete'Done to death"? Well, yes. French studies, as well as German and Western European, is claustrophobic, and people reinvent ways of looking at familiar material more than finding new sources. Of course, Medieval and Ancient history have always been in this position. Britain, however, does not suffer the fate of France, even though it has been done to death as well. Indeed, some historians (like Ferguson and Hitchens) have founds ways of reinventing British history to make empire look benign.
ReplyDeleteBy comparisson, Central Asia is unfamiliar, unexplored, as well as current for contemporary politics. It is a better arena to explore the issue of empire.
But does 'done to death' mean irrelevant? French history is still a source of metaphors and tropes that are contested with tremendous energy.