20^th Century Revolutions, Nationalism, and

Decolonization �

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Global Developments

• Imperialism: policy of extending a country’s influence using diplomacy, force, or (neo-colonialism) economic ties.
• Growing Nationalism
• World War I
• World War II

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• decolonization: the process of ending colonial rule
• Cold War political hostility between countries characterized by threats, propaganda, and other measures short of open warfare,
• example: between the Soviet bloc countries and the US-led Western powers from 1945 to 1990
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Maps: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_1914_empires_colonies_territory.PNG

and http://gorhistory.com/hist111/empire.html

Local (Colonial) Developments

• Ideological conflicts

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• intellectual debates

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• administrative roles

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• elites

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• prejudice

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• World War I and II resources:

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World War I: Effects

• Promises of self-determination
• Use of colonial soldiers in trenches
• Locals filled posts left by colonial powers during war
• Financial strain on empire
• Treaty of Versailles

World War II: Effects

• Increased nationalist uprisings following WWI and as a result of the global depression
• Costs of empire
• US support of anti-colonial liberation movements
• Atlantic Charter (1941) “right of all people to choose the form of government under which they live”
• Soviets condemned colonialism

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Atlantic Charter, 1941

Cold War

• Provided inspiration: blended capitalist and socialist economies and agendas.
• Provided arms to those who sided with one or the other (proxy wars and arms races).
• Encouraged violent recourse for some as a result of the power politics of cold war competition.

Process of Decolonization

and Nation- Building

• Surge of anti-colonial nationalism after 1945.
• Leaders used lessons learned in 20’s and 30’s: mass politicization and mass mobilization

• Three patterns:
• civil war (China)
• negotiated independence (India & much of Africa)
• incomplete de-colonization (Palestine, Algeria and Southern Africa, Vietnam)

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China Case study

• 1920’s and 1930’s conflict between Communists (Mao Zedong) and

Nationalists in China (Chiang Kai-shek)

• Japanese invasion (for resources) interrupted civil conflict --> temporary unity

China Case study

• Growth of Communist Party Power
• WW I: Communists appeal to peasants & women: (health care, divorce rights, education access, graduated taxes, cooperative farming).
• Growth of party through use of anti-Japanese propaganda.
• Resumption of civil war after Japanese surrender.
• Corruption of Nationalist leaders
• Communists Take-Over
• 1949 Great People’s Revolution- Mao
• Nationalist leaders fled to Taiwan.

Chinese Communist Revolution (1949)

• Foreign Imperialism (Japan)

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• Chinese Civil War

(Communist v. Nationalists)

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- Communists win support of peasants & women

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– Long March (Mao Zedong)

• Communist state under Mao Zedong →
• Great Leap Forward → Cultural Revolution

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• Equality of women

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• Deng Xiaoping
• economic freedom (Four Modernizations)
• not political (Tiananmen Square) or social (censorship)

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Negotiated Independence in India and Africa

Independence with little bloodshed between imperial powers and colonies.

India and

much of colonial Africa in decades following World War II.

Why? At what cost?

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India Case Study Background

• India and other Asian colonies were the first to establish independence movements.
• Western-educated minorities organized politically to bring about the end of colonial regimes.

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India: History of the Movement

• Indian National Congress party founded in 1885. (Elite group not mass movement)
• Growth of Indian national identity- presented grievances to the British.
• Congress party attracted mass following which opposed shift from the production of food to commercial crops.
• Gandhi and Congress leadership tried to prevent mass peasant uprising (as was happening in China) by keeping power centered on middle class leaders.

Militant Nationalists

• B.G. Tilak urged a boycott

of British manufactured goods

and used threats of terrorism.

• Attracted a violent conservative Hindu following.
• Tilak was exiled and his movement was repressed by the British.

Peaceful Protests

• Mohandas Gandhi and other western educated lawyers led peaceful alternative.
• Nation-wide protest against colonialism through boycotts and campaigns of civil resistance.
• His efforts were not well received by the Muslims who formed a separate organization in 1906, The Muslim League.
• Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Muslim League) insisted on partitioned state (Hindu and Muslim).

British India Between the Wars�

Continued Indian Resistance

• Salt March, 1931
• Government of India Act 1935

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Independence

• August 1947
• Partition: Pakistan and India
• Effects:
• Inter-communal violence: (Mass killings (1 million) of Muslims and Hindus
• mass migrations (12 million).
• Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister,began modernization campaign in India.

Nationalism in North Africa and the Middle East

Decolonization in the Middle East- Palestine and Israel

• Zionism
• 1917 Balfour Declaration
• Immigration of Jews to Palestine
• European Holocaust
• Increase of migration
• 1947- end of British mandate of Palestine and failed UN partition solution
• 1948 establishment of Israel
• Regional conflicts->

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The Region of Palestine

The Rise of Arab Nationalism and the Issue of Palestine

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• Wahhabi revolt
• Arabs declared independence from Ottoman rule: 1916
• Mandates of the League of Nations
• Iraq and Jordan assigned to Britain
• Syria and Lebanon assigned to France
• Palestine was a separate mandate
• Balfour Declaration, 1917
• Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, created 1932
• Ibn Saud
• Discovery of oil
• Jewish immigration into Palestine

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A New Nation: Iraq

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• Emergence of a new political entity along Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• Region divided along ethnic and religious lines
• Shi’ite majority (rural),
• Sunni minority (cities),
• Kurdish population in northern mountains
• League of Nations placed country under British control in 1920
• King Faisal of Syria given titular authority
• Discovery of oil near Kirkuk, 1927
• Independence of Iraq in 1932

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Modernization of Iran

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Qajar dynasty (1794-1925)

Problems with Russian advances to the Caucasus

Constitution granted in 1906

Influence of Russia and Great Britain

Oil discovered, 1908

Reza Khan (1878-1944) seizes power in 1921

western style republic

Pahlavi dynasty

Changed the name of Persia to Iran

Western-style education

oil as primary export: foreign dominated

(but: Pahlavi rule angered clerics and nationalists --

prompting 1979 revolution and overthrow)

BBC Documentary

Iran Under the Pahlavi Dynasty�

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Egypt

• 1906 Dinshawai incident aroused nationalist passions.

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• Coup d’etat in 1952 Gamal Abdel Nasser
• Nationalization of Suez 1956 protested by Israelis, British and French but diplomacy won over eventually.
• Nasser= symbol of pan-Arab nationalism.

Nationalism in Turkey

• Decline of Ottoman Empire

Young Turks

T.E.Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and Egypt

• Colonel Mustapha Kemal (1881-1938) (Atatürk)
• Created a secular republic
• Modernized the economy, written language, and education
• Broke the political power of the Islamic religion in Turkey
• Lionized by the People of Turkey

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Image Credit: BBC. For Classroom Use Only

A Variety of Patterns of Decolonization in Africa & Asia

Africa for Africans:

African Led

Decolonization &

Independence

British Style

From “Divide and Rule” to tutelage and independence.

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“Commonwealth Countries”

French Style

- franc zone -

“little Frenchmen”

or

abrupt independence

Africa for Africans

• Nationalists composed of ex-servicemen, urban unemployed & under-employed, and the educated.
• Pan-Africanism & Negritude
• Senghor (Senegal) and
• W.E. B. Dubois (African-American)

British-Led de-colonization in Africa

• 1957, Gold Coast (renamed Ghana) independence, led by western- educated, Kwame Nkrumah.
• “Winds of Change” speech by British P.M Howard McMillan: 3 Feb 1960.
• By 1963, all of British ruled Africa, except Southern Rhodesia, was independent.

Kenya

• Presence of settlers prevented smooth transition of power.
• Kenya (20,000 Europeans only) led to violent revolt.
• Mau-Mau Revolt, 1952, led by Kikuyus suppressed by British.
• 1963 independence granted to black majority, led by Kenyatta.

South Africa

• 4 million white residents
• Afrikaner-dominated (white) National Party won 1948 election
• Apartheid
• No protests tolerated (African National Congress, Mandela, Sharpeville massacre 1960)
• 1990’s black government elected

French-ruled Africa (North and West)

De-colonization in �French-ruled Africa

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• Encouraged closer French ties- assimilation -- language, culture, economic ties -- not autonomy.
• Granted limited rights.
• But -- with exception of Algeria, by 1960 had granted independence.

Leopold Sedar Senghor

"I would like to assure the whites of our unshakable will to win our independence and that it would be stupid as well as dangerous for them to wish to make the clock march backwards. We are ready, if necessary as a last resort, to conquer liberty by any means, even violent ones."

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Leopold Senghor speaking in August 1946.

Credit: BBC Story of Africa

Leopold Sedar Senghor

Background :

• Western educated
• Francophone
• intellectual
• Senegalese
• Poet
• first president of Senegal.
• Advocated democratic socialism and negritude.

• Negritude: validation of African culture and the African past by the Negritude poets. Recognized attributes of French culture but were not willing to be assimilated into Europe.

Algeria

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• Large French settler population: pied-noir --claimed most fertile 23% of the country.
• France offered loi cadre -- local control within the French Empire.

Algeria

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• 1954- 1962 war between FLN (nationalist party) and French troops -- and later between FLN and OAS -- French settlers fighting for themselves.
• 300,000 lives
• atrocities on both sides

Vietnam

• French rule since 1880’s –rice, mining, and rubber exports
• Rise of foreign educated intelligentsia (Ho Chi Minh) -->
• Formation of Viet Minh in 1941
• Guerrilla War with France (1946-1954)
• Divided country in 1954 led to gradual US entry to contain communism.

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Examples: Violent and Incomplete Decolonizations

Why?

• Presence of European immigrant groups impeded negotiations, leading to violence.
• Examples: Kenya, Palestine, Algeria, and southern Africa
• Continued Colonial Rule & Policies
• Cold War Politics and Proxy Competition
• Example: Vietnam’s de-colonization complicated by France’s colonial ties and cold war politics.

Women as leaders in the Independence Movements

• Women fought alongside men in whatever capacities were permitted in Algeria, Egypt, China, Vietnam,India and elsewhere.
• China, 1942:

“ The fighting record of our women does not permit us to believe that they will ever again allow themselves to be enslaved whether by a national enemy or by social reaction at home.”

• Women given constitutional rights but social and economic equality rarely achieved in postcolonial developing nations.

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Literature and Decolonization

• Expressions of nationalism and rejections of western superiority.
• Gandhi, “ I make bold to say that the Europeans themselves will have to remodel their outlooks if they are not to perish under the weight of the comforts to which they are becoming slaves.”
• Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
• Senghor, “Snow upon Paris”
• Aime Cesaire, West Indian poet, founder of Negritude “Return to my Native Land”

International Organizations

and Decolonization

• League of Nations

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• United Nations

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• Organization of African Unity (1963)

Fall of Empire:

Fall out and Legacy

• Colonial footprint
• Problems of Transition
• Problems of Identity

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Challenges of Independence

• ethnic disputes
• dependent economies
• debt
• cultural dependence on west
• revivalism as backlash
• social unrest
• military responses to restore order

• population growth
• resource depletion
• lack of middle class in some locales
• education deficit and later, brain drain.
• neo-colonialism through economic debt.

Nationalism and Dictatorship in Latin America

• Five Important Factors
• A Century of Independence (+/-)
• World War I
• United States’ Role in Latin American Economies
• Great Depression
• Role of Elites

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• By the 20^th C, almost all of Latin America achieved independence

Latin America

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• Commodity Export Led Economy:
• Argentina: beef and wheat
• Chile: nitrates and copper
• Brazil and Caribbean nations: sugar
• Central American states: bananas

Dependency Theory

Dependency Theory

• World War I - European investments declined
• Rise of U.S. role in local economy
• Investment: US Companies are Largest investors
• “Chile and Peru: copper mining
• Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia: oil
• “banana-republics” and united Fruit Company
• Raised U.S. political influence in Latin America esp. in Central America and Caribbean
• Latin Americans growing feelings of hostility
• “Good Neighbor Policy”
• Impact of the Great Depression
• Decline of Latin American exports
• Decline in foreign revenues
• Encouraged development of new industries:
• Chile and Brazil – steel
• Argentina and Mexico – oil
• Government investment replaced local sources of capital

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Elites Dominate in Latin America

• Argentina
• Hipólito Irigoyen (1852-1933)
• Brazil
• Military overthrows the monarchy
• Getulio Vargas (1883-1954)
• Autocratic
• Mexico
• Institutional Revolutionary Party
• Lázaro Cárdenas (1895-1970)
• Land redistribution
• Seizes oil industry
• Latin American Culture
• Diego Rivera (1886-1957

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Some Conclusions

• Decolonization: extent of violence often depended upon how many European settlers had come to the colony.
• Decolonization: often not revolutionary; power passed from one class of elites to another. Little economic and social reform occurred.
• New nations faced significant challenges.
• Western economic dominance continued.

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Selected Sources

Algerian Independence: http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his312/lectures/algeria.htm

Camus in Algeria: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/nov/07/camus-and-algeria-moral-question/

Battle for Algerian Independence: Source Work http://people.hofstra.edu/alan_j_singer/CoursePacks/TheBattleforAlgerianIndependence.pdf

Alan Singer Coursepacks http://people.hofstra.edu/alan_j_singer/

Sources on Indian INdpendence Site: https://sites.google.com/site/gandhi2014/Home

AP Nationalism Revolutions Decolonization: alternate presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Eln1EEV2AiUmhZgO_zK6yYzttX8jmWOt3xIpFOX18LY/edit#slide=id.p32

Useful Chart http://www.historyhaven.com/APWH/unit%205/New%20Forms%20of%20Nationalism%20comparison.htm

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