Arcs and Context
Some histories can appear self-contained when they are not.
This page highlights additional arcs that may provide important context for understanding a particular history, culture, system, or social condition more fully. The goal is not to create a single “correct” interpretation, but to encourage broader exploration across connected histories, perspectives, and lived experiences.
Because the Arc of People Power is still early in its development, many important histories and contextual arcs have not yet been created. Blue links lead to arcs that already exist. Arcs labeled still to come represent histories, systems, or perspectives that are not yet part of the project, but whose absence is recognized as important.
To better understand Xi Jinping, it helps to understand…
Cultural Revolution (still to come)
Provides historical context for the Chinese government’s emphasis on stability, centralized authority, and political control.
Century of Humiliation / Colonial Encroachment (still to come)
Helps explain modern Chinese nationalism and the government’s sensitivity to foreign influence and territorial sovereignty.
Uyghur Repression (still to come)
Provides contemporary context around ethnic identity, surveillance, assimilation, and state power.
To better understand Narendra Modi, it helps to understand…
British East India Company
Provides colonial context for modern Indian nationalism, political identity, and debates about sovereignty and development.
Partition of India (still to come)
Helps explain the lasting political and religious tensions created by mass displacement, violence, and the division of India and Pakistan.
Caste System (India focus)
Provides social context for inherited hierarchy, inequality, political identity, and access to power.
Hindu Nationalism (still to come)
Helps explain the relationship between religion, national identity, and political power in contemporary India.
To better understand Plantation slavery and racial caste in the Caribbean and Brazil, it helps to understand…
Indigenous dispossession in the Americas
Shows how colonization involved both land seizure and systems of racialized labor.
Haiti and Slave Revolt (still to come)
Provides context for how enslaved people resisted slavery and challenged colonial power directly.
Colonialism and Atlantic Trade (still to come)
Helps explain the global economic systems that connected slavery, trade, empire, and industrial wealth.
To better understand Adolf Hitler, it helps to understand…
The Holocaust (still to come)
Provides context for the mass murder, persecution, and racial ideology at the center of Nazi rule.
Colonial Eugenics (still to come)
Helps explain how racial pseudoscience and imperial ideas about hierarchy influenced modern authoritarian movements.
Benito Mussolini
Provides context for the broader rise of fascism and authoritarian nationalism in Europe.
To better understand British East India Company, it helps to understand…
Colonialism and Resource Extraction (still to come)
Helps explain how imperial powers extracted wealth, labor, and resources through political and military control.
Bengal Famine (still to come)
Provides human context for the consequences of colonial economic policy and imperial governance.
Caste System (India focus)
Helps explain how colonial rule interacted with existing systems of hierarchy and social division.
To better understand Indigenous dispossession in the Americas, it helps to understand…
Plantation slavery and racial caste in the Caribbean and Brazil
Provides context for how land seizure, racial hierarchy, and labor exploitation developed together.
Stolen Generations policies
Shows similar patterns of indigenous displacement, cultural erasure, and forced assimilation in another settler society.
Palestine (still to come)
Provides additional context for understanding displacement, land, identity, segregation, and political belonging.
To better understand Apartheid South Africa, it helps to understand…
Nelson Mandela and Anti-Apartheid Resistance (still to come)
Provides context for the movements, organizers, and resistance efforts that challenged apartheid rule.
Plantation slavery and racial caste in the Caribbean and Brazil
Helps explain longer histories of racial hierarchy, labor exploitation, and inherited inequality.
Palestine (still to come)
Raises related questions about segregation, land control, movement restrictions, and unequal political rights.
To better understand Donald Trump, it helps to understand…
Racial segregation in the U.S. South
Provides historical context for ongoing conflicts over citizenship, voting rights, and political belonging in the United States.
Christian Nationalism (still to come)
Helps explain how religious identity and political power can become closely connected.
McCarthyism / Red Scare (still to come)
Provides historical context for political fear, internal enemies, loyalty campaigns, and nationalist rhetoric.