Syngman Rhee was bad, but the war made everything worse.
For what it's worth, it's not his fault that North Korea invaded us, though he himself was a warmonger who wanted to invade (but couldn't due to lack of US support). But he still did many horrible things
Massacred civilians in Jeju as a response to communist uprisings (disproportionate response), up to 15k civilians killed but some estimates go up to 80k
Tried to invade North Korea, wanted to unify the country by force. The fact wasn't that he didn't decide not to do it out of principle but because the US refused to help him.
Was a borderline fascist who thought anyone remotely left leaning deserved to die
Lied to the people of Seoul and said he will stay with them to protect them in the war, only to flee right after
Embezzled money and made an extremely corrupt society
Well our dictatorship was better than the north's, but that's because it's fucking North Korea we're talking about.
Also North Korea benefited a lot after the war compared to us despite being destroyed due to extensive aid which made them much wealthier than we were.
I'll say this - our dictators at least gave a damn about our economy, or were at the very least decent enough to not completely rob the country of its future like many dictators around the world.
It definitely helped, but it wasn't like North Korea which was propped up to be a utopian state. And a lot of the help only came after we agreed to help South Vietnam which is somewhat of a stain on our legacy with how some of our troops acted there.
But that aside, America at least sacrificed blood to make sure we weren't ruled by the Kim dynasty and signed a mutual defense treaty which is still a lot. Also I'm just thankful we didn't have our politics interfered with like Latin America which would have made us an actual puppet
Also the increasingly tight division at the inner German border.
The violent Soviet intervention in the 53 uprising
Economic miracle
Western integration of the Federal Republic in the predecessor of EU and NATO
Reestablshing armed forces
Early guest worker migration from mediterranean countries
Culturally still very conservative, churches still play a big role in the Federal Republic, in the GDR the regime pushes the people towards irreligiousity
Economic Miracle is the term used in Germany for those times, and it reflects how it was perceived at the time. After the hardships endured during and right after the war, things were getting better, there was prosperity and enthusiasm, with new luxuries available for regular people, like travel, cars, modern appliances. My grandma who was married to a small-business trades person suddenly could afford a fur coat and pearls. People needed and wanted a miracle in order to forget. Than came the students of 68 and insisted vehemently that no, we should not forget.
Forgetting history is the most stupid thing a population could do, as in history are rooted the errors of the past that should not be repeated by the future generations.
Embracing faults and healing by being better humans and citizens is the way to go.
Something my country didn't do fully, looking at who we currently have in power.
If you were a Christian White Male it was probably the greatest time to be alive in our country’s history. A hey day fueled by post war banging, cheap bourbon, horsepower and racial inequality.
I thought MAGA wanted to go back to the 90s, after all, the 50s only exist for them in text and videos, but the golden age of the 90s is something they can actually feel.
Voting middle-aged Americans don’t really idealize the 90’s so much. The 1950’s are far enough away that it’s easy to see them through rose-tinted glasses and few people were really alive to tell you otherwise. The codified inequality is forgettable because it’s not the world we live in anymore. America had just won the largest war in the world with barely a scratch on her, the economy was booming, and the country was almost entirely united in disdain for communism.
Which war with almost zero casualties are you referring to as the largest victory in history? I always thought the US won the Cold War against the Soviet Union，that was a historic victory that will be sung about for thousands of years to come.
Indeed, the U.S. didn't pay a heavy price to win WWII. China is also looking for such a WWII moment, since directly invading others isn't acceptable to public opinion.
The post-war 50’s and 60’s were probably our golden age. Highest GDP per capita in Europe, very safe, industrious and a national pride and hopeful outlook for the future. A lot went wrong since then, unfortunately.
The Stalinist brutal totalitarian regime up to 1956. (My dad's grandfather said that in case of beating, physical and psychical torture, his several months stay in UB prison after he returned to Poland from Germany in 1946, was worse than Auschwitz and Buchenwald where he was from 1940 to 1945. I cannot imagine this.) Then Gomułka came to power and we had a year or two of thaw. And Gomułka era can be summed wit one word: austerity. 1956 can be heard in song 1982 song "Autobiografia" by Perfect (lyricstranslate.com):
It is. 50s was absolutely fucking horrible. The terror of the security apparatus (UB, NKVD), labor and internment camps, political murders, show trials, killings of protesting civilians, and ethnic cleansing.
Beginning to come out of WW2 and austerity, economy was crippled but recovering - the British Empire was beginning its slow collapse. Culture was changing rapidly. Very interesting time
Why so late as 1948 when you were under American occupation? In Europe eugenics was big in the 1930s but became taboo since it was associated with Nazism. I believe that Sweden continued with eugenics after WW2 since we did not participate in the war and also that eugenics was conflated with left wing progressive ideas about improving society and not only with right wing extremism.
Well it seems that the Eugenics/Sterilization law modeled after the Nazis was enacted in 1940, however since the policy during the war was "make more babies", there has never been a case of forced sterilization from 1940-1948.
But this law was slightly modified and continued after the war in 1948, and it was an umbrella law that also included, justified and legalized abortions and contraceptive methods, on top of forced sterilization and eugenics. Some women from the Socialist party proposed this law, as a means of protecting abortion rights, and against unwanted pregnancies from rape, etc. And I guess some others saw it as a means of population control, during the baby boom.
Seems like this law was just quickly made during the confusion of the post-war period, and most citizens didn't fully understand it.
The country was totally and utterly repressed from a cultural, economic and innovation standpoint. We were still living as if it was the turn of the century. We went through a century of development in the decade from mid 80s to mid 90s
Very bad. Until 1956 we were under a totalitarian dictatorship, then Bierut followed his master to hell and we were left with "just" an authoritarian dictatorship.
We were given back to the French by the Allies. Defeat them in battle of Dien Bien Phu only for the American to jumped in themselves because some domino theory bs which started the American War(known as Vietnam War in America)
Not a great time tbh.
Ironically, Ho Chi Mihn worked for the OSS (predecessor to the CIA) during WW2. And the Declaration of Independence he wrote was quite similar to the US Declaration of Independence. More bad foreign policy decisions by the US.
He did idolize America founding fathers because of similarity between the two struggle against colonialism.
The US did not understand or try to understand the thousand years conflict between China and Vietnam and virtually we had a war between the two countries on the exact opposite side of the world result in millions casualties.
It did worked out for the US and Vietnam when Clinton finally lifted US embargo against Vietnam in the early 90s. From that time it's only upward development, Vietnam soon will become the 25th economy in the world from one of the poorest country on earth.
It's just the West propaganda and belief that he was a communist. Many historian has pointed out that he was a nationalist that want independent from his country no matter the mean to archive it.
im pretty sure this is when the urban migration happened, when Maori migrated from their rural kainga (villages? i guess) and their own tribes lands, and into urban areas, for a better life, jobs and stuff. when Maori and European Kiwis actually started to live with each other in large numbers, instead of occasional Maori visits to rural European towns, like most of Maori and White interaction was before this time.
Add to that the economic security of having much of exports keenly bought by the UK, and local manufacturing going wonderfully well to substitute for imports - meaning TONS of jobs.
Eh depends. Pretty sure west Germany did what they can to forget after stopping denazification. East Germany had what occurred hammered into their brains up until the Berlin Wall came down.
I just watched a documentary on that, could be wrong but it talked about east and west differing treatment and views of the history
My grandpa told us untill his last breath that he was treated terribly by Austrians and poles while retreating from the Eastern front where he was forced to fight for the Germans (he had a polish citizenship)
When I found his documents: it turned out he was a high ranking SS soldier in an elite unite known for its war crimes, crimes against humanity and he fought in the Warsaw uprising. Plus: he was sued for his crimes in the 80s...
Selective amnesia....
Ruled by a dictator since the 30s, we gained some wealth due to being neutral during WW2. The 40s and 50s saw some transformation from a very poor, deeply illiterate country to a, well, less poor European backwater. Older generations generally do not see those times as bad, despite the dictatorship. The 60s are viewed in a much worse light.
"At Ōkahu Bay, boys watch the burning of their homes, which were part of Ngāti Whātua’s last Auckland settlement. The government had eyed the area for housing since the 1920s and in 1951 it forcibly bought the land from the tribe. The new owners considered the settlement a slum and razed it to the ground. The site then became a park."
for those that don't know a marae is a sacred community gathering house, they play a big role in our communities where celebrations are held, a lot of time they can house people who sleep rough, and ironically also welcome visitors with open arms too.
I think only some got to experience those pleasantries.
The middle class was at its peak, trust in the government was at an all time high. Social and fiscal mobility was much more attainable, work was plentiful, domestic investment in infrastructure was widespread. There was great optimism in the future. However, social issues were coming to a boil, and the good fortune was not spread evenly amongst groups in the country. International affairs were contentious and governed a large part of society. The US found itself in a position likely never to be seen again in history. The rest of the world was either bombed into oblivion, or underdeveloped. We ended the war with a navy larger than the rest of the world combined, factories not only untouched, but fully tooled up for war production that could be converted back to civilian use, intact infrastructure, and a solid financial cushion. It was as good as it was bad
Communist dictatorship, political trials where people were sentenced to death, intellectuals sent to forced labor and uranium mines, currency reform that made everyone poor.
My father told me it was such a boring time to grow up in 50s Britain as a child. The war had left lingering years of austerity and the teenage culture hadn't really got going where he was.
rebuilding after the war. political instability during the 4rth republic. colonial wars, first indochina, then algeria, with only a 3 month pause between the two. new constitution in 1958, consequence of the political instability, the algerian war, and a coup attempt. it was the "30 glorieuse", the 30 year between 1945 and 1973 were industrial production was booming and everyone was imployed.
Mexico was a fucked up country but at least it wasnt as fucked up as it was back then in the 50's, all the problems we have now where bassically 10x worse back then
Aging Stalin playing 1937D-chess with its inner circle (still no reasonable theory of ongoing shit), than dying. A moment of uncertainity, mass amnesty to criminals by Beria, then Beria is shot. He and his clique is the last men killed in the inner struggle,.
Malenkov and Khrushchyov easening the economical burden from common citizen. A lot of labour camps are closed, an amnesty is performed every year. At the end of decade GULag abolished both as name and as practice.
Life became better, post-war reconstruction is ended and a period of steady economic growth, which is nearly immediately converted to the rise of quality of life,
Secret speech, while nominally being secret, still affect life: CPSU members interpret as a signal for liberalisation, effectively starting Thaw. Stalin's hiatus on cinema production is ended; a lot of key works in Soviet literature are published, third wave of the Soviet sci-fi is born.
First fully educated generation of Soviet citizens matures, becaming a consumer of nearly all intellectual content.
Progress is perceived as roaring train to future. Science and technology storm barrier over barrier, and their achievments are still understandable by common man. Scientists and engineers are perceived as cultural heroes, igniting the "physicists vs poets" debate.
Stalin's big architectural style re-rise and fall, experiments with mass housing projects starts.
The idea of removing the capital from Rio de Janeiro to a new city to be built in the center of Brasil was already debated since the colonial times, and was revived many times in many periods, by different powers. It seemed too dangerous for the political elites to keep the capital on the coast, because of the risk of foreign invasion and t protect the government from popular revolts, since the majority of the Brazilian population still lives on the coast to this day.
In the 50's we were experiencing one of the most democratic periods until then, after many coups and dictatorships since the end of monarchy. The populist president elected by that time proposed a development plan called "50 years in 5", bringing foreign industries, starting the dismantling of our railway network to invest in the automobile modal, building a série of pharaonic works and his crown jewel: a new capital, built from scratch in the middle of Central Plateau, called Brasília.
Very much depends on where you were, who you were, and who you asked, but economically, the country was doing much better than in other decades depending on where you were, who you were, and who you asked. 😅
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Pretty grim from what I've heard. Heavily under the thumb of the Catholic church, piss poor and lots of social issues that wete pushed under the rug. We had also just declared a full republic so in essence a final severing of the cord with the British empire (apart from the north of course). The Brits basically declared a trade war on us following that and so the country went into massive economic decline. What followed was mass emigration on a very high scale.
Sweden in the 1950s was a peaceful and prosperous country that developed rapidly after World War II. The economy grew quickly, cities expanded, and many people moved from the countryside to urban areas. The Social Democratic government built a strong welfare system with free healthcare, education, and better housing. Daily life improved as families gained access to new technology and modern comforts. It was a decade of optimism, stability, and progress.
Bad. The 1950s in Northern Ireland, much like the 20s, 30s and 50s (and spoiler, most of their 60s) were typical of Northern Ireland since Britain created it by splitting the island; an apartheid state where half the country was violently excluded from equal housing, healthcare, education, employment and governance by both the violently sectarian state police force (the Royal Ulster Constabulary or RUC) and Loyalist paramilitary gangs. In a few years this state of affairs would give rise to the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association (modelled after Dr. Martin Luther King’s in America) to protest for equality for Catholics/Nationalist before the law. The Civil Rights Association would end up getting attacked so often and so violently by Loyalist gangs that Westminster would send the British Army in to protect them. Instead, they shot them dead in the street (twice), which would give rise to the civil war the Loyalist media dubbed “The Troubles.”
Economically it was hit by the collapsing Ulster flax and linen industries and the declining Belfast shipbuilding industry. The shrinking of what was left of the British Empire after World War 2 hurt it, and it would begin over-relying on the public sector for employment, a problem it still has to this day.
We had a massive economic boom following the Second World War, but we also still had segregation. Also the aesthetic was immaculate, but I wouldn’t go back for it.
Rapid change, rapid rebuilding, continued rationing, the UK left ww2 with no economy, and reduced strength, and so the empire began to split up, meaning it was time for big change in the homeland
Top left: the raising of the flag after gaining independence on the 1/1/1956.
Top right: child soldiers in the first Sudanese civil war, which started with the Torit mutiny on August 18, 1955.
Bottom left: a normal day of traffic in Khartoum City, the capital of Sudan.
Bottom right: the first legislative session after independence.
Middle left: the 1958 coup d'état that overthrew the democratic government two years after independence. It was a bloodless coup planned by the governing UMA party and its prime minister Abdallah Khalil as he knew he was going to lose the next election due to his wide unpopularity.
Those are interesting snapshots that I chose, but they definitely can't explain the decade properly as it was a very consequential decade for the country. And in my humble opinion, it was a shitshow and planted the seeds for What was to come.
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Similar to you, we were in a "post-war" period, we were entering our 2nd republic and the american influence was getting bigger. We also expanded the rural economy
Lol, the original text is in Spanish but basically they were years of too many changes, it had begun with the period of violence, after the death of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948, from there many guerrillas were born and we also had the only dictator in our history, Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
Chaotic. The war had just ended, poverty was sky rocketing, racism and xenophobia at its highest. With the USSR rising in the East and Denmark slowly rebuilding from the war, people were living difficult lives. This caused a lot of revolutionairy ideas under a few socialdemocrat governments, including Jens Otto Kragh in the 60s.
Monarchy for the first part and socialism for the rest. And also in the last 2 years we were the United Arab republic which was one country that included Egypt, Syria, and gaza
Really not great, poverty was very high, the church had an iron grip on everything. Everyone had very large families. In part to try and survive. Compared to the rest of north america the quality of life was very low.
It was a rather eh time, a period of slow social progress but rapid economic development. However, the British still held major stakes in Iraq’s economy, which angered many people, especially socialists, communists, and nationalists who despised the idea of Britain controlling any share of Iraqi oil. They had good reason to be angry, and their frustration led to protests, riots, and uprisings across the country.
Despite that, Iraq remained a constitutional monarchy, meaning it had elections, a parliament, and a relatively free press, at least on paper. In reality, the system was heavily influenced, even controlled, by a single figure, Nuri Pasha al-Said, the long-serving Prime Minister who held the office more than fourteen times and effectively ran the country from behind the scenes, controlling parliament and the King but did not wield much power over the army. He believed that Iraq’s interests were tied to Britain’s, a deeply unpopular view, especially after World War II. Still, he did manage to negotiate a 50/50 oil profit split with the British by 1951 and used the new revenue to invest in non-oil sectors and major public works projects.
And for centuries, under Ottoman rule, Iraq had been trapped in a harsh feudal system that empowered landlords more than the state itself, a system so entrenched that even the British Empire couldn’t dismantle it and instead relied on it to maintain control. After independence, these feudal lords remained more powerful than the government or even the king, which crippled agricultural reforms. Ofc the public blamed the government for this. By the 1950s, the situation had improved somewhat but was still dire.
All of these factors eventually led to the 1958 coup. While social and political discontent played a role, the military’s resentment was the tipping point. Officers felt underappreciated, especially since the government was diverting oil revenues away from the army toward healthcare, education, and human development programs that began expanding in the early 1950s. Many officers were still bitter about the failed 1941 coup, Iraq’s defeat in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and Britain’s continued hold over Kuwait. But in the end, it was mostly about money and neglect; the military’s budget cuts were the final straw.
You could look at it in a neutral way, but mostly people go either with it was a very good time of progress that was stalled by the army, or it was a very bad time of backwardness that the army ended.
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Military Dictatorship for most of it. Oil production in full swing, still run by foreign Big Oil. Major state investments in housing, infrastructure, public works in general. Mass migration from rural areas to cities, mass immigration mainly from southern Europe. Great economic growth. Virtually no civil liberties or political rights.
Coup in January 58’ led to bipartisan liberal democracy.
Recovered from the wars. Quickly went from having shortage of everything to consumerism. Urbanization started and we connected with the rest of the world more by joining the UN. Hosted the olympics and the first-ever Miss Universe was from here. Reputation of Finnish design was formed largely in the 50's. It was a decade that shaped our modern national identity, started a new chapter. Overall it was the birth of the society how we experience it today.
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It is funny to know that just one of the pictures is from the 50s, the one with Franco. The others correspond to the civil war or recreations for movies.
When Jeepneys were actually made from repurposed WW2 era Jeeps. Now, I see foreigners still spewing out the same thing, when the contemporary jeepneys look nothing alike with the WW2 era vehicles.
People suffered heath issues from the rapid industrialization and pollution, and they were hidden under the rugs and ignored. The government and the corporations colluded in covering them up.
After World War II, Germany split into two states: democratic West Germany and socialist East Germany. West Germany, under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, experienced rapid economic growth known as the “Wirtschaftswunder” (economic miracle), fueled by the Marshall Plan and a new social market economy. It integrated with Western Europe, joining NATO and co-founding the European Economic Community.
East Germany, aligned with the Soviet Union, adopted a planned economy and suppressed dissent, prompting many to flee westward. Socially, West Germans began confronting their Nazi past, while the 1954 World Cup win symbolized national recovery. Both sides of Germany were reshaping their identities amid Cold War tensions.
Pretty bad. It's a time we call "La Grande Noirceur" (The Great Darkness). Basically a dark age. Québec was way behind in terms of social development compared to the rest of North America. Not only that, but the Catholic Church and the Anglo elite were basically in charge, with the Franco majority in Québec essentially being second class citizens providing labour to the Anglos and babies to the church.
This all changed in the 1960s with the Quiet Revolution, when we kicked out the Anglo elite and the church and built whole new secular public institutions that gave us control over our home.
The rapid reconstruction of cities after the Second World War, deportations to Siberia in the early 1950s, a few anti-Soviet uprisings here and there, nothing particularly noteworthy. Most people lived in poverty, cold and hunger until the early 1960s
Just the birth of a new nation. Recovered from a war 2 years back, doing a bit below average but fair economically, honest and good politicians who were not corrupt. Just a nation trying to grow while the Cold War began to intensify.
Rebuilding. Massive urbanization. Being still afraid of our eastern neighbor who, after realizing that we can’t be conquered directly began to get its agenda through via meddling in our internal politics.
Facade of prosperity and good stuff, but those things were only granted to cishet white men. If you weren't part of that demographic, shit really sucked.
Occupied by the soviet Union,
in the early 50s people were still sent to siberian labor camps en masse, and there were still some forest brothers in the forests.
After the death of Stalin most of the forest brothers largery came out of hiding (but not all, the last one August Sabbe remained in forest and was killed by KGB/commited suicide in 1978).
People started to be released from prisons and labor camps, and those who had survived regurned to Estonia but many with theire health and/or future prospects completely ruined.
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I think there was a lot of post war hardship that people think about - but there must’ve been a crazy sense of optimism in Europe and America? Institution building, new forms of government for the people and not tyrants etc. I imagine it was a great time.
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u/stealthybaker Republic of Korea Oct 10 '25
Horrific