The United States was a nation born in a revolution against a powerful European nation and one might expect that America would have therefore welcomed and encouraged the Haitian revolution. But, instead the United States refused to recognize Haitian independence, primarily because the United States feared the spread of antislavery revolutions which might disrupt the American socioeconomic order.

In December 1789, the National Constituent Assembly created “assignats,” or new government bonds. Devised as a hopeful remedy for France’s feeble economy, these “assignats” were financed by the forcible sales of confiscated Catholic Church property. Originally issued in small, select numbers, the French public took to the idea so quickly that, before too long, the Assembly started issuing “assignats” at a truly overwhelming rate. Inevitably, this produced a glut on the market and caused the bonds’ value to correspondingly falter, which in turn triggered a rise in inflation.

Serfdom first emerged in Europe during the Middle Ages, but had mostly died out in Western Europe by the Renaissance (certainly by the Enlightenment period). Serfdom persisted much longer, however, in Eastern Europe and was only abolished in Russia in the mid-nineteenth century.

The social consequences of the Industrial Revolution are extremely complex. To begin with the Industrial Revolution actually worsened the quality of life for the majority of the population. Workers, who were used to a degree of autonomy and a reasonable work day, were suddenly forced into effective wage slavery and forced to work fourteen or sixteen hour shifts at factories. Eventually, working conditions got better, unions arose, and the quality of life for the population improved dramatically. But, it cannot be said that the wealthiest members of society became less relatively wealthy. Indeed the Industrial Revolution accelerated the income gap between the owners and the workers.

China's economic liberalization has catapulted hundreds of millions of people into the middle class, but the Communist Party has remained in power.

While economic liberalization has caused some social instability, especially with rising economic inequality, politically the Communist Party has remained in power.

At the end of China's Civil War, defeated warlord Chiang Kai Shek retreated to the island of Taiwan, decades before China's economic liberalization.

The Korean War was in the 1950s, long before China's economic liberalization.

Sino-Soviet border conflict occurred while Mao was still in power, long before China's economic liberalization. 

The New Economic Plan (NEP) was instituted by Lenin because he recognized that some of the extreme socialist policies put into place previously under War Communism had eroded the popularity of the Bolsheviks among the Russian people. 

The Solidarity Movement broke out in Poland in the 1980s. At the time Poland was under the control of the Soviet Union and a key member of the Warsaw Pact. The Solidarity Movement was a large-scale labor union (at its height it had nearly eight million members) that was extremely anti-communist in nature. It was widely suppressed by the authorities, but contributed heavily to Polish independence and also to the downfall of the Soviet Union. 

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created in 1935 as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program. The WPA was designed to employ the millions of unskilled American workers who were suffering immensely during the Great Depression. These workers were employed in road and public works construction across the United States. At its peak in the late 1930s the agency employed more than three million Americans.

Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978, following the death of Mao Zedong, and headed the Chinese Communist Party until 1992. His reign is marked by a reversal of the more divisive and destructive aspects of Mao’s rule. Deng Xiaoping was himself targeted during the Cultural Revolution and when he came to power he formally repealed the movement and set about dismantling its many policies. Deng Xiaoping is remembered as a moderating force in the history of the Chinese Communist Party.

The European Coal and Steel Community was formed in the 1950s, in the wake of the Second World War. Founding members included France, West Germany, and Italy. Its purpose was to integrate the economies of the Western European powers so closely as to make war not just impractical, but economically impossible. It became one of the founding organizations that would later combine to form the European Union.