Mr. White’s World History Class

When we are finished this section, we should be able to:

Explain how nationalism impacted events in the Middle East and Africa during and after World War I

Explain how Gandhi used non-violent methods in India's struggle for independence from Britain

Explain how nationalist and communist forces struggled in China

Describe how Japanese political, economic, and social pressures resulted in Japanese militarism and expansionism

As part of his Fourteen Points, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson hoped nations would be given self-determination following World War I – they would be allowed to decide for themselves what they wanted

In most cases, European powers tightened their control on their colonies, or expanded into new spheres of influence

In the Middle East and Africa, new forces for nationalism and independence created tensions.

In the Middle East and Africa, World War I and the influence of European nations had de-stabilized the region and added many new dynamics

Middle East – Ottoman Empire collapsed, Arab nationalism rose, independence movements started

Africa – Movements opposed to European rule began to press for independence

The nation of Turkey was all that was left of the Ottoman Empire after World War I

Greece invaded Turkey in attempt to crush the Turkish state, but failed

General Mustafa Kemal of Turkey led a group known as the Young Turks and defeated Greece

With Kemal's growing popularity, the Turkish sultan gave up his power, and Kemal became the first Turkish president

Kemal wanted to industrialize Turkey so that it could become a modern nation

Kemal adopted many western customs in an attempt to modernize Turkey

Adopted the European calendar, Latin alphabet, and metric system, supported adopted western names

Banned the fez, tried to stop female veiling Reformed the legal code and separated

government and religion Kemal adopted other reforms to give a sense of

Turkish national pride Purged the language of Persian and Arabic

influences and words Changed his name to Kemal Attaturk

While his reforms were not always popular, Kemal did successfully modernize Turkey

The nation of Persia was ruled by a shah After World War I, Great Britain and the

Soviet Union had interests and businesses in Persia's oil fields

In 1921, Persian nationalist forces under Reza Khan overthrew the shah to end these foreign influences

The new government built infrastructure – schools, roads, hospitals

Reza Shah Pahlavi used Persia's oil fields to make money for the nation

Coming up to World War II, Pahlavi aligned his government with Hitler – was an admirer and considered Persians and Germans to be of the same Aryan descent

Pahlavi changed the name of Persia to Iran (variant of Aryan)

Britain and the Soviet Union sponsored a revolution by Pahlavi's son to overthrow him

After World War I, Britain received a mandate for the area known as Palestine – Britain would oversee the area basically as a colony

The previous relationships between religious groups in the area had been peaceful, and kept that way by whichever Muslim empire had ruled the area – Abbasids, Ottomans, etc.

As the British ruled the area, Jews and Muslims within Palestine came into conflict with each other

Beginning in the late 1800s, Jewish persecution in Europe (such as pogroms) resulted in many Jews returning to Palestine

Jews claimed land based on a Biblical heritage; many wanted to set up a Jewish home state - Zionism

Muslims and Arabs claimed that they had held the land continuously

During World War I, the British had promised self-government and independence to Arabs in return for support against the Ottomans

The British had also made promises to support a Jewish state

As more and more Jews immigrated to Palestine, Great Britain struggled to keep the peace

Egypt had been held by the British as a protectorate since the late 1800s

Egyptian nationalist forces under Saad Zaghlul demanded independence

In 1922, Britain gave Egypt limited independence

In World War II, when Italy (allied with Nazi Germany) invaded Ethiopia, the British granted Egyptian independence in return for Egyptian support against Italy

In Kenya, independence movements struggled against British colonialism

After World War I, the British increased their imperial control on Kenya – coffee plantations were planted and used as cash crops

Kenya's Henry Thuku protested colonial taxes and labor laws – the British arrested him

Jomo Kenyatta opposed British imperialism by campaigning for Kenyan independence in London – slow going

In Nigeria following World War I, the British increased their colonial control

A protest by unarmed Nigerian women attacking British goods and property resulted in police killing fifty people – many Nigerians started to want independence

Future Nigerian protests adopted non-violent methods

Still no independence for Nigeria by World War II

In British colonial India, Mohandas Gandhi used non-violent methods to protest British colonialism and work for Indian

independence.

Great Britain's most valuable colony prior to World War II was India

Coffee, tea, jute, indigo, and cotton were cash crops that Britain got from India

In return for the support of Indian troops, Britain promised eventual independence for India

Over time, more and more Indians stopped seeing British rule as beneficial or benevolent

In 1919, a large crowd of around 10,000 Indians gathered for a political and religious festival in a walled-off garden

The British had outlawed large public gatherings

To disperse the gathering and discourage such disobedience, British General Reginald Dyer ordered sepoy troops to fire into the crowd until it dispersed

The sepoy troops had blocked the largest escape route As people tried to escape through the other small

passages, they often were trampled to death by others behind them

Many Indians dove into a well in the center of the courtyard to avoid the gunfire – reports of 120 bodies found in the well

A British imposed-curfew prevented anyone from tending to the wounded that night – many more died

Totals reached 400 dead, 1200 wounded The British General showed no remorse for his actions The Amritsar or Jallianwala Bagh massacre shocked many

Indians, and many began to call for independence

Mohandas Gandhi was educated in England and had practiced law in South Africa

In response to British imperialism, Gandhi proposed and supported pacifist methods Civil disobedience – disobey laws

considered unjust Gandhi began to work with the Indian

National Congress to gain Indian independence Urged tolerance between India's groups –

Hindus and Muslims Opposed Western notions of brute force,

money worship, and prejudice

Gandhi's non-violent methods led to increased popularity and followers

He began to organize boycotts of British goods Spun cloth for 30 minutes a day so he

wouldn't have to buy British cloth As Gandhi gained in popularity, the

British arrested and imprisoned him for the rest of the 1920s

When Gandhi got out of prison, he continued to use non-violent methods

The British passed a law taxing salt in India – very necessary for life Gandhi led a growing march to the sea,

where he and others gathered salt, breaking the British law

Gandhi and his followers continued to disobey British laws until the British would respond with arrests, threats, or violence

The British gradually began to give Indians more political power

In 1935, the Government of India Act gave India a constitution Some limited power in making laws for the

Indian people Many people were unhappy with this

small measure, but Gandhi's influence convinced many people that this was a small, but important, first step

Even with Gandhi as a unifying influence, Hindu-Muslim relations became strained

As possible self-government approached, the Muslim minority began to a government run by Hindus

When Hindus won some provincial elections, Muslims began to demand a separate nation

Gandhi called for unity, but the Indian independence movement split because of these religious differences

Chinese nationalists and communists struggled to take power in China; an invasion by the Japanese forced them

to work together.

Sun Yat-Sen was the leader of the Kuomintang, or the Chinese Nationalist Party

In 1912, Sun took power in China and tried to establish a democratic republic Held power for a few

months, then was overthrown by Yuan Shigai

Sun organized resistance to Yuan, but failed to overthrow him and fled to Japan

Yuan died in 1916, and China descended into civil war

Sun returned from Japan, and with the help of the Soviet Union and an officer named Chiang Kai-Shek, the Kuomintang took power in China

Even though Sun wanted a republic, the Kuomintang government was undemocratic

It improved infrastructure in the nation, but did not improve the lives of the peasants

In 1927, communists who had helped Sun and the Kuomintang tried to take over the party, but failed

Chiang Kai-Shek, fearing the communists, decided to purge them from the Kuomintang

The communists fled to the southern part of China and formed the Chinese Red Army Worked for the support of the peasants Overthrew local landholders and redistributed

land to peasants

A civil war between the nationalist Kuomintang and the communist Red Army began

By 1934, the Red Army was almost defeated The Red Army escaped through a year-long

forced march, pursued by the Kuomintang army – known as the Long March

Japan’s invasion of Manchuria would force the Kuomintang and Red Army to work together

Japan’s military gradually took power from the democratic government of Japan.

Japanese relations with the western nations after World War I were mixed

On the positive side: Japan gained Germany’s Pacific colonies north of the

equator Japan was allowed, by an agreement, to build the

nation’s third-largest navy (U.S. and Great Britain) On the negative side:

The League of Nations had refused to accept a Japanese proposal for a statement of racial equality in the League charter – insult

The United States had banned Japanese immigration The western nations opposed Japanese influence over

China, which Japan had basically made into a protectorate

Japan had experienced a population explosion between the 1870s and the 1920s – from around 35 million to 60 million people

Social, political, industrial, and military factors, plus this population explosion, encouraged Japan to expand or for its people to move by one of three ways: Immigration Imperial expansion Capitalism and world markets

Japan had rapidly industrialized during the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Because the U.S. would allow no immigration, the Japanese focused on manufacturing and trade to provide employment for people

Heavy industry expanded in the hands of rich industrialists known as zaibatsu, and the government

Increased manufacturing spurred a desire for cheap raw materials - colonies

Social changes placed more pressures on Japan that could be relieved by expansion

Overpopulated rural areas and land scarcity drove many Japanese into the cities to work in industrial jobs

In those cities, western customs and culture were adopted – clash of cultures with traditional

More and more Japanese had the right to vote, so there was growing democratic representation

Even though more and more were voting, political power in Japan was concentrated in the hands of nobles, zaibatsu, and the military

Emperor Hirohito and the people, in theory, were supposed to have power, but didn’t

When the Great Depression caused prices to drop in Japanese manufacturing, many unemployed and desperate Japanese began to call for strong leadership

Militarism began to influence many aspects of Japanese life

The military opposed western lifestyles and promoted Japanese culture

The military leaders thus were wary of the western customs that many people were adopting

September, 1931 – without government approval, the Japanese military invaded Manchuria in China – government had lost control

The military gradually took more power in the government, and by 1937 basically was the government

The emperor, fearing a strong stance would result in his overthrow, didn’t take a stand against the militarists

As Japan invaded other nations, western criticism of Japan led to many Japanese backing the military

With this, the support for militarism in the nation grew