After WWI, both organizations dedicated to achieving independence
Indian nationalists inspired by Wilson's Fourteen Points
and the Russian Revolution
Frustrated by Paris Peace settlement: no independence for
colonies
British responded to nationalist movement with repressive
measures
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), leader of Indian nationalism
Raised as a well-to-do Hindu, studied law in London
Spent twenty-five years in South Africa, embraced tolerance
and nonviolence
Developed technique of passive resistance, followed a simple
life
Became political and spiritual leader, called the Mahatma
("Great Soul")
Opposed to caste system, especially the exclusion of untouchables
1920-1922, led Non-Cooperation Movement; 1930, Civil Disobedience
Movement
The India Act of 1937
1919 British massacre at Amritsar killed 379 demonstrators,
aroused public
Repression failed, so the British offered modified self-rule
through the India Act
Unsuccessful because India's six hundred princes refused
to support
Muslims would not cooperate, wanted an independent state
Great Depression worsened conflict between Hindus and Muslims
Muslims believed Hindus discriminated against them
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, head of the Muslim League, proposed
two states, one of which would be Pakistan
China's search for order
The republic, after 1911
1911 revolution did not establish a stable republic; China
fell into warlords' rule
Through unequal treaties, foreign states still controlled
economy of China
Growth of Chinese nationalism
Chinese intellectuals expected Paris Peace Conference to
end treaty system
Instead, Paris treaties approved Japanese expansion into
China
May Fourth Movement: Chinese youths and intellectuals opposed
to imperialism
Some were attracted to Marxism and Leninism; CCP established
in 1921
CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and Guomindang (The Nationalist
Party)
CCP leader Mao Zedong advocated women's equality, socialism
Guomindang leader Sun Yatsen favored democracy and
nationalism
Two parties formed alliance, assisted by the Soviet Union,
against foreigners
Civil war after death of Sun Yatsen, 1925
Led by Jiang Jieshi, both parties launched Northern Expedition
to reunify China
Successful, Jiang then turned on his communist allies
1934-1935, CCP retreated to Yan'an on the Long March, 6,215
miles
Mao emerged as the leader of CCP, developed Maoist ideology
Imperial and Imperialist Japan
Japan emerged from Great War as a world power
Participated in the League of Nations
Signed treaty with United States guaranteeing China's integrity
Japanese economy boosted by war: sold munitions to Allies
Prosperity short-lived; economy slumped during Great Depression
Labor unrest, demands for social reforms
Political conflict emerged between internationalists, supporters
of western-style capitalism, and nationalists, hostile to foreign
influences
The Mukden incident, 1931, in Manchuria
Chinese unification threatened Japanese interests in Manchuria
Japanese troops destroyed tracks on Japanese railroad, claimed
Chinese attack
Incident became pretext for Japanese attack against China
Military, acting without civilian authority, took all Manchuria
by 1932
League of Nations called for withdrawal of Japanese troops and
restoration of Chinese sovereignty; Japan responded by leaving the
League
The new militant Japanese national identity helped set the stage
for global conflagration
Africa under colonial domination
Africa and the Great War
Many belligerents were colonial powers in Africa; nearly every
colony took sides
German colonial administration faced combined colonial forces
of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Portugal
Britain sought to maintain naval supremacy and to secure
victor's spoils after war
France sought recovery of territory earlier ceded to Germany
Germans, outnumbered ten to one, could not win but 15,000
troops tied down 60,000 Allied forces until late in the war
Large numbers of Africans participated actively in the war as
soldiers or carriers
Some volunteered; some were impressed; some were formally
conscripted
Greater than 150,000 African soldiers and carriers died and
many were injured or disabled
During the war, Africans challenged European colonial authority
Colonial subjects noticed that an already thin European presence
became even thinner as war channeled colonial personnel elsewhere
Africans stage armed revolts, requiring colonial powers to
divert military resources to meet these challenges
The cause of revolts varied but they included pan-Islamic
opposition to war; anti-European and anti-Christian sentiment;
and compulsory conscription of Africans
Colonial authorities ruthlessly put down all the revolts
The colonial economy
After the war, Africa was transformed by the pursuit of two economic
objectives by colonial powers
Ensuring that the costs of colonial administration were borne
by the colonized
Developing export-oriented economies in which unprocessed
raw materials or minimally processed crops were sent abroad
Previously self-sufficient African economies were destroyed in
favor of colonial economies dependent upon a European-dominated economy
During the Great Depression, colonial economies suffered as trade
volume and prices fell dramatically
Port facilities, roads, railways, and telegraph wires were
built or installed
Infrastructure facilitated conquest and rule, but also linked
the agricultural and mineral wealth of the colony to the outside
world
Europeans and their businesses were the main beneficiaries
of modern infrastructure, even though Africans paid for it with
labor and taxes
Farming and mining were the main enterprises in colonial economies
Whites owned the enterprises, and used taxation policies
to drive Africans in the labor market
Africans became cash crop farmers or wage laborers on plantations
or in mines in order to pay taxes levied on land, houses, livestock,
and peoples themselves
Large areas of richly productive lands were controlled by
Europeans
Colonial mining enterprises recruited men from rural areas
and paid them minimal wages, which impoverished rural areas
Officials resorted to outright forced labor where taxation
policies failed to create a suitable native labor force
Forced labor essentially a variant of slavery and could be
quite brutal, especially among laborers forced to work on road
and railway projects, in which many thousands of workers died
from starvation, disease, and maltreatment
African Nationalism
After the war, ideas concerning self-determination gained acceptance
among a group of African nationalists, giving rise to incipient nationalist
movements
An emerging class of native urban intellectuals—a new African
elite—became heavily involved in these movements offering freedom
from colonial rule and new ideas concerning African identity
Members of the elite class were often educated in Europe
The elites included high-ranking civil servants, physicians,
lawyers, and writers
Jomo Kenyatta: a good example of this trend
African nationalists embraced European concept of the nation-state
as the best model for realizing their goals of mobilizing resources,
organizing societies, and resisting colonial rule
Different opinions prevailed regarding what constituted a people's
national identity
Some based identity on ethnicities, religion, and languages
of pre-colonial times, and believed that institutions crucial
to these identities must be recreated
Some regarded the African race as the foundation for identity,
solidarity, and nation-building
Pan-Africanists such as Marcus Garvey called for the unification
of all people of African descent into a single African state
Still others looked to an African identity rooted in geography;
they would build nations on the basis of borders that defined
existing colonial states
After World War II, these ideas would be translated into demands
for independence from colonial rule
Latin American struggles with neocolonialism
The impact of the Great War and the Great Depression
Having gained independence in the nineteenth century, Latin American
nations continued to struggle to achieve stability in the midst of
interference from foreign powers
Interference usually took the form of neocolonialism: foreign
economic domination and, frequently, military intervention and interference
in the workings of a nation's political system
This new imperial influence emanated from wealthy, industrialized
powerhouses such as the United States and Great Britain, not former
colonial rulers
The Great War and the Great Depression led to a reorientation
of political and nationalist ideals in Latin America
Marxism, Lenin's theories on imperialism, and concern for
workers shaped the views of many intellectuals and artists
Revolutionary doctrines come to be seen as viable political
alternatives to Enlightenment-based liberalism
In the 1920s, inspired by the Mexican and Russian revolutions,
university students began to demand reforms such as more representation
within the educational system
Students become imbued with Marxist thought and anti-imperialist
ideas as universities became training grounds for future political
leaders such as Fidel Castro
New political parties were formed that openly espoused communism
or rebellious agendas for change
In Peru, José Carlos Mariátegui embraced Marxism
and in 1928 established the Socialist Party of Peru
Numerous other radical political movements critical of Peru's
ruling system emerged during the 1920s and 1930s
Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, who supported anti-imperialism
and workers' rights, influenced the APRA, which advocated a non-communist
alternative to existing political arrangements
Diego Rivera and his radical artistic visions
This Mexican artist, active in the Mexican Communist Party,
blended artistic vision and radical political ideas in large murals
created for public buildings, for the appreciation of working
people
Rivera's art provoked controversy in the United States, as
his paintings, particularly Imperialism, visualized the
economic dependency and political repressiveness engendered by
U.S. neo-colonialism
Rivera's art publicized the impact of U.S. imperialism and
helped spread political activism in the Americas
The evolution of economic imperialism
The export-oriented economies of Latin American states had long
been controlled by U.S. and British investors
The main trend of neocolonialism of the 1920s was increasing
U.S. control of economic affairs of Latin American countries
From 1924-1929, investments of U.S. banks and businesses grew
from $1.5 to $3.5 billion, mostly in mineral extraction and oil drilling
enterprises
U.S. President Taft argued for substitution of "dollars for bullets"
in Latin America, promoting peaceful commerce over expensive military
intervention.
Critics referred to these policies as "dollar diplomacy"
Such policies illustrate what Latin Americans perceived as
"Yankee imperialism"
Great Depression halted economic growth as prices for Latin American
commodities plummeted
Foreign capital investment fell and foreign trade was restricted
but domestic manufacturing and internal economic development made
important gains, as under the Vargas regime in Brazil, for instance
Vargas experimented by implementing protectionist policies, which
pleased industrialists and urban workers, and social welfare initiatives
to benefit workers
Conflicts with a "good neighbor"
In late 1920s and 1930s, U.S. reassessed foreign policy in Latin
America
Since military intervention expensive and ineffective, rely
increasingly on "dollar diplomacy"
Neocolonialism persists in form of "sweetheart treaties"
in which U.S. financial interests controlled economies of Latin
American states
FDR and "good neighbor policy": pursue cordial relations
with Latin American states and have U.S. marines train indigenous
police forces to quell unrest
Limitations of this policy revealed in Nicaragua where, in the
past, widely prevalent U.S. financial interests had engendered U.S.
intervention in times of civil unrest
Civil war in mid-to-late 1920s and the insertion of U.S.
Marines to restore order provoked nationalist opposition by Augusto
Cesar Sandino, who insisted upon removal of Marines from his country
The U.S.-supervised election of 1932 brought Juan Batista
Sarcasa to the presidency, and the brutal but effective Anastacio
Somoza Garcia installed as commander of the National Guard; the
U.S. departed
Somoza's guard troops murdered Sandino in 1934 (making him
a martyr) and soon Somoza became president
As president, Somoza maintained the loyalty of the National
Guard, worked to prove himself a good neighbor of the U.S., built
the largest fortune in Nicaragua's history, and established a
long-lived political dynasty
The nationalization crisis in Mexico under President Lázaro
Cárdenas
Cárdenas's 1938 nationalization of the oil industry
tested the limits of Roosevelt's more conciliatory approach to
Latin American relations
Roosevelt resisted pressure from U.S. and British companies
to intervene
Negotiations resulted in foreign companies accepting $24
million in compensation rather than the $260 million originally
demanded
U.S. desire to cultivate Latin American markets for exports,
and to avoid militarist behavior, led to neighborly cultural exchanges
reflective of a more conciliatory approach
During and after the Great War Mexicans migrated to the U.S.
in large numbers to serve as agricultural and industrial laborers
(but many were deported during the Great Depression)
Hollywood promoted Brazilian singing and dancing sensation
Carmen Miranda in order to promote more positive images of Latin
America
The United Fruit Company used Miranda's image to sell bananas,
which symbolized U.S. economic control of various regions of Latin
America
Through its ads, the United Fruit Company gave its neocolonial
policies a softer image for consumers in the U.S., which provided
a counterpoint to Rivera's Imperialism
