Nationalism and Independence

Abroad

SPRING 2010
MARIST SCHOOL
MR. ERIC HEINTZ
 Nationalism

Unity or a sense of it pushed peoples to ask for or

demand independence from colonial or imperial
rulers
This occurred across the globe
Began following the end of WWI and accelerated
after WWII
 Ottoman Empire

Lost territory throughout 19th century to Europeans

Alienated allies with massacres of Armenians
Lawrence of Arabia pushed independence in the ME
 Breakdown of the Empire

WWI broke up the empire and it was divided by

Europeans
 Turkey was organized under Mustafa Kemel – “Ataturk”
 Modernized politically and economically as a secular republic that
eliminated Arab elements
 Iran was led by Reza Shah Pahlavi under “Persian nationalism”
 Attempted to push out European powers who were meddling
 Saudi Arabia was organized under Ibn Saud who attempted to
unite Arabs on the Arabian peninsula
 Palestine began to see huge numbers of Jewish immigrants as
a result of Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Europe
 Tension between Palestinians and Jews begin anew
 The Future of the Middle East

Hopes
 Natural resources
 International support and concern
Challenges
 Secularization vs. traditional Islamic lifestyles
 Religious toleration within and between faiths
 Israel
 What happens when oil is gone?
 Water/food
 Terrorism
Africa
 African Movements for Independence

Egypt and South Africa gain freedom, but they are

the exception
Treaty of Versailles did not grant independence as
they had hoped – still colonized by Europe
 WWI taught ideas of freedom/nationalism
Widespread protests and increased activism resulted
 Most movements were crushed violently
Western-educated leaders from urban middle classes
pushed for “Pan-Africanism” and unity
 African Freedom

1957 – Ghana (Gold Coast), 1st British colony to gain

freedom
Masses gained independence in 1960’s and 70’s but
rarely in the form of democratic governments
Challenges
 Residual race and class divisions (apartheid etc.)
 Economic challenges from years of exploitation and single-crop
economies
 Political corruption and dictatorial regimes
 Population growth
 Lack of arable land
 Ethnic and tribal differences
Hopes
 Diverse natural resources
 Flexible lifestyles
India
 Indian Independence

Gandhi and his supporters pushed for self-rule using

civil disobedience but many end up in prison
Over time, England agrees to joint rule in 1935
India is a large, diverse nation and three movements
form
 Gandhi’s – religious, Indian, peaceful, traditional
 Nehru’s – secular, modern and Western
 Muhammed Ali Jinnah’s – Islamic, separatist
1947 – India is free but divided into Muslim Pakistan
and Hindu India
 Many migrate and violence erupted killing more than a million
 Modern India and Pakistan

Government – democratic (left-leaning), strong

bureaucracy, similar to Britain
Challenges for Pakistan:
 Terrorism/Taliban
 Muslim-Hindu Violence
 Political leadership
 ***East Pakistan breaks away and becomes Bangledesh
Challenges for India:
 Population growth and size
 Muslim-Hindu violence
 Diverse citizens (hundreds of ethnicities and languages)
 Independence movements
 Nationalism in Asia (and Communism!)

Communism didn’t initially have any appeal because

they were agricultural in nature
Comintern – est. to promote communism abroad
Trained party leaders created cooperative gov’ts in
places like Vietnam and China
 Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh (French Indochina)
– this eventually will lead to the Vietnam War
 Most failed because of no urban working class
 China

By 1920, there was no real central authority

 Sun Yat Sen’s party competed for power (Nationalists)
 Communist party competed for power
They initially worked together to expel foreign influences
1927 – Chiang Kai Shek, the new Nationalist leader,
breaks the alliance and kills 1000’s of communists in the
Shanghai massacre
 Worked to reunite China w/o communist support
 Pushed the communists out of the cities with military strength
 Mao Zedong, believed that a communist revolution, a different kind,
was still possible, one led by peasants and not workers
 Rise of Communism in China

Chiang attempted to modernize China economically and

politically but maintained an oppressive regime
Mao gained strength in Northern China until two gov’ts
were going simultaneously
 Full scale civil war broke out
Promised of land gained Mao many
peasant supporters (and soldiers!)
1949 – Chiang is defeated and moves to
Taiwan
Great Leap Forward – attempt to
collectivize land - failed
Cultural Revolution – Little Red Book – create a
permanent revolutionary culture - failed
 Recent History post-Mao

Movement toward capitalism, modernization, global

interconnections
Oppression of democratic ideas
Economic dominance and
industrialization/development
Challenges
 Globalization brings challenging new ideas
 Population
 Pollution
 Consumer culture cannot be sustained
Chinese Pollution