Chapter 29

1. Nationalism in
Asia and the
Middle East

2. After World War I
Wilson’s 14 Points called for the interests of “native
populations” in imperial territories to be given equal weight to
the desires of the European powers.
This gave hope to many who thought they might be able to
achieve self-rule.
These hopes were dashed by the mandates system: the
Permanent Mandates Commission was established by the
newly formed League of Nations to ensure that European
powers would maintain control of imperial territories (with
the eventual goal of self-rule, but no set timeline).
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3. After World War I
Great Britain and France had convinced many Arabs in the
Ottoman Empire to fight on the side of the Allies.
Arab groups believed that a larger Arab state would gain
independence after the end of the war.
GB and France never intended for the Arabs to gain full
independence, in 1916 they had signed the Sykes-Picot
Agreement in secret, dividing the Arabic Ottoman areas
between them.
In 1917 Arthur Balfour (British Foreign Secretary) makes the
Balfour Declaration, supporting the idea of a Jewish homeland
in Palestine.
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4. Nationalism in the Middle East
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The Mandate System in the
Middle East
➢Lebanon and Syria were French
Mandates
➢Palestine, Jordan (known as
Transjordan), and Iraq were British
Mandates
➢Egypt, Sudan, Kuwait, and the
Southern and Eastern Arabian
Peninsula under British
“Protectorate” status (this included
present day Bahrain, Qatar, United
Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen)

5. Nationalism in the Middle East: Turkey
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We’ve previously touched on how Turkish nationalism arose in the late
Ottoman Empire, eventually taking control of the government in 1908.
Ethnic Turks wanted a strong nation for themselves, but they did not want
to lose land to other ethnic groups within Ottoman territory, this put them
into direct conflict with Kurds, Arabs, and Armenians (and to a lesser
extent remaining Greeks).
During WWI the Turks were particularly brutal towards the Armenians,
killing many and forcing the remaining population to march east, where
they were held in concentration camps. This is known as the Armenian
Genocide (the first to be called a genocide, and would serve as the
inspiration for Hitler in WWII).

6. Ethnic Groups in Asia Minor
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7. Nationalism in the Middle East: Turkey
7
Many Greeks still lived in the coastal areas (Blue on the previous map).
Kurds in southeastern Anatolia (Brown on the map) were subjected to
forced “reeducation” and Turkification.
Ethnic Arabs (Green on the map) in the late Ottoman Empire during WWI
were enticed to side with the British and French troops fighting Ottoman
soldiers, under the promise that they would gain independence.
By the end of the war, Arab areas had been placed under the mandate
system, and did not achieve independence. Many Kurds had fled Turkey
into Kurdish areas of Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

8. Nationalism in the Middle East: Turkey
8
After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, allied forces occupied a
newly formed Turkey. With British support, a Greek force landed in
Western Turkey in 1919 and began taking territory.
Mustafa Kemal, a Turkish military leader, rallied a resistance force,
defeated Greek and British troops, and eventually took over the
government of Turkey in 1923. He then forced many Greeks to leave.
Kemal took the last name Ataturk (father of the Turks), and reformed
Turkey using many of the ideas begun by the Young Turks.
He Westernized culture, separated Islamic doctrine and the state,
Latinized the alphabet, and set about industrializing the country.

9. Nationalism in Persia/Iran
➢ Persians forced the Shah to accept a constitution in
1906
➢ In 1907 Russia and Great Britain divided Persia into
spheres of influence without consulting Persian
leaders
￫ Both Russia and GB often occupied cities and
effectively controlled the north and south
➢ When the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917 the
British rushed into the power vacuum and
attempted to install “advisers” in all areas of
government
➢ The Persian governing body (Majlis) rejected British
intervention by 1921
￫ A nationalist movement arose, led by Reza
Shah Pahlavi, who ruled as a military dictator
from 1925-1941
￫ Modernized the military, built railroads, and
quelled ethnic minorities, and limited foreign
businesses
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10. Nationalism in Afghanistan
➢ Afghanistan was technically independent, but
heavily influenced by Britain.
￫ No control over foreign affairs, for example
➢ In 1919, the Emir Amanullah Khan invaded British
India with the goal of establishing true Afghan
independence (Third Anglo-Afghan War)
➢ He succeeded and began attempting reforms
￫ Secular schools
￫ Rights for women
￫ Constitution in 1923
￫ Secular government and courts (not Islamic)
➢ Powerful tribal leaders resist, starting a civil war
➢ Afghanistan would persist as a kingdom with an
official government in control of the more
developed areas, while the more rural areas were
often controlled by tribal leaders, until 1973
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11. Nationalism in the Arab States
➢In 1918 a joint British and Arab force had defeated
Ottoman forces, taking control of the Arab areas of
the empire.
➢Syria and Lebanon
￫ A Syrian National Assembly is formed in 1919 and elects
Faisal bin Hussein (a Saudi Prince) to be King of Greater
Syria
￫ In 1920 France is given the mandate for Syria (and
Lebanon) and uses French troops to disband the Assembly
and depose the king
￫ Eventually Syria and Lebanon would gain independence,
but with French dominance
➢Iraq
￫ British leadership thought Faisal bin Hussein (above) would
make a good king for Iraq (he was close friends with T.E.
Lawrence (of Arabia) and had fought with British forces)
￫ Hussein was king from 1921-1933 and gained
independence for Iraq in 1932 but with a restrictive military
alliance with Britain
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12. Nationalism in the Arab States
➢Jordan
￫ British forces supported the rule of Abdullah bin Al-Hussein (Brother of
Faisal bin Hussein of Syria/Iraq, see previous slide). This family is still
the royal family in Jordan today.
➢Palestine
￫ In the late 1800s many European Jews fled antisemitism in Europe and
immigrated to Palestine (their ancient Holy Land). This movement was
led by Theodor Herzl and was called the Zionist movement.
￫ Even so, only 11% of the population in Palestine was Jewish in 1914.
Many European Jews preferred to immigrate to the US instead.
￫ The growth of Arab nationalism after WWI coincided with more drastic
immigration restrictions in the US after 1921.
￫ These restrictions, along with growing antisemitism in Europe
(especially after Hitler took power in 1933) resulted in larger
numbers of European Jews resettling in Palestine/Jordan.
￫ The British tried to appease Arab protests by limiting Jewish
settlement to the area of present day Palestine.
￫ Arabs, Jews, and British forces began to clash in what was
essentially a civil war between 1936 and 1939.
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13. ➢ Soldiers and Laborers from the British Indian territories had
served in the allied forces on all fronts during the war
➢ Meanwhile in 1916 Hindu and Muslim leaders agreed to
push for self-governing status (like Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand) in the Lucknow Pact
➢ The British tried to appease this sentiment by allowing
certain areas of governance to be controlled by an elected
Indian parliament in 1919
➢ The British retained authoritarian control over taxation, the
military, the police, and the courts, and extended wartime
measures to put down protests with force
￫ The use of force to disband any large gathering
resulted in The Amritsar Massacre in 1919
Toward Self-Rule in India
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14. Gandhi and India
➢ Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in Gujarat, in western India, to
a wealthy family
➢ He studied law in England, passing the bar at 22
➢ In 1893 he moved to South Africa to represent members of the
Indian community whose rights were being diminished by the
white Dutch Afrikaners and the British
➢ While fighting discrimination in the courts, he also developed
the idea of nonviolent resistance, eventually leading to the
overthrow of discriminatory practices against Indians living in
South Africa in 1914, leading many to begin to call him
“mahatma,” Hindi for “great soul”
➢ In 1915 he returned to India and fought for the next 20 years
for greater self-rule, negotiating a new constitution in 1935
➢ Even so, Muslim and Hindu national movements began to
grow in different directions by the end of the 1930s
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15. Nationalism in China
➢ The Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1911 by a republican
movement, and established the Chinese Republic.
➢ Sun Yatsen, the leader of the revolution, did not seek power
and supported Yuan Shigai (a former Manchu leader) as the
first President
￫ This was misguided, because Yuan quickly dissolved
the new parliament and took all power for himself
￫ When Yuan died in 1916 the country devolved into rule
by regional warlords, allowing the Japanese to take
control of even more land in the northeast
➢ In 1919 a student group protesting the Paris Peace
Conference’s decision to allow Japanese occupation to
continue erupted into the May Fourth Movement, a pro-
Marxist (communist) and nationalist movement to reunite
the country under a strong, Chinese central government
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16. Nationalism in China
➢ Sun Yatsen, the hero of 1911, returned to lead this movement
➢ In 1923 he allied his nationalist group with the newly-formed
Chinese Communist Party and the Soviet Union
➢ He died in 1925, leaving the national movement in the hands
of Jiang Jieshi (you may know him as Chiang Kai-shek)
➢ Chiang Kai-shek led the conglomerate of nationalists and
communists in reunifying the country in 1926-1927, moving
the capital to Nanjing
￫ After the country seemed consolidated, he began
persecuting communists, whom he thought would try
to take power, driving most communists underground
and creating a deep hatred between the two groups
(nationalist and communist)
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Sun Yatsen
Chiang Kai-shek ->

17. Nationalism in China
➢ From 1911-1929 China underwent the New Culture Movement
￫ This movement emphasized Western ideas such as individualism,
equality, and the scientific method as being superior to traditional
Chinese Confucian-based ideals
➢ Democracy was not the only Western idea to enter, though, and
the ideas of Marxist socialism were also widespread
￫ Chinese communists did not limit the revolution to industrial
workers (like in the Soviet Union), but saw the Chinese peasant
masses as the labor force to lead the revolution
➢ Mao Zedong was a student in Beijing in 1919 when the May
Fourth Movement occurred, and later helped to organize trade
unions in the southern Hunan province before becoming a
teacher
￫ By 1927 he began leading communist uprisings against the
nationalist central government in Southeastern China
￫ By the 1930s the Nationalists and Communists were fighting each
other across China.
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Mao Zedong,
Communist
leader in China

18. ➢ With the Meiji Restoration in 1868 there was a strong push to form a nationalistic state that
could withstand Western power
➢ By 1910 Japan was industrialized and its military had defeated Russia and China in wars,
gaining significant territory in Manchuria, northern China, and control of Korea
￫ Taiwan and other islands in the Pacific were also occupied
￫ Most of this was driven by the need for more natural resources which were scarce on the Japanese
Islands
➢ Ultranationalist views began to develop even more into the 1930s, as many Japanese
leaders began to call for an Asia for Asians, and to see themselves as the “big brother” of
other Asian peoples
➢ In 1937 the Japanese army in Manchukuo (the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria)
invaded Northern China, beginning WWII in Asia two years before it began in Europe, this
invasion united the communists and nationalists in China, who moved to fight this foreign
intervention
Ultranationalism and Imperialism in Japan
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➢ Next Up: The Great Depression and Interwar Europe
➢ Then: World War II and the Holocaust