China, India, & Southwest Asia

Sun Yat-sen

The nationalist leader who overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and became the first provisional president of the Republic of China.

Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi)

The anti-communist leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) who fought Mao Zedong for control of China.

Yuan Shikai

A powerful general who betrayed Sun Yat-sen's democratic principles, ruled China as a military dictator, and triggered a wave of warlordism.

Mao Zedong

Co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who rallied the Chinese peasantry to fight a revolutionary guerrilla war.

Mohandas Gandhi

Leader of India’s independence movement who used nonviolent civil disobedience to break British rule.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Leader of the Muslim League who insisted that Muslims need their own independent nation, eventually founding Pakistan.

Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal)

The modernizer and first president of Turkey who separated Islamic law from the government and secularized the nation.

Reza Shah Pahlavi

Nationalist leader of Iran (Persia) who modernized infrastructure and schools but kept power heavily centralized.

Ibn Saud

A conservative Arab leader who unified the Arabian Peninsula to establish the strictly Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Kuomintang

The Chinese Nationalist Party that favored westernization, modernization, and democracy.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

Formed in 1921, this party envisioned a Marxist revolution driven by rural peasants rather than urban factory workers.

Civil Disobedience

The deliberate and public refusal to obey an unjust law, using entirely nonviolent means.

May Fourth Movement (1919)

A massive student-led protest in China against the Treaty of Versailles, because the treaty gave formerly Chinese lands to Japan instead of returning them to China.

Shanghai Coup (1927)

A bloody massacre where Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces turned on and executed their communist allies, starting the Chinese Civil War.

Chinese Civil War

A long conflict between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and Mao Zedong’s Communists for control of China.

Long March (1934–1935)

A dangerous, 6,000-mile retreat by Chinese Communists fleeing Nationalist forces; it cemented Mao’s status as the undisputed communist leader.

Rowlatt Acts (1919)

Crucial British laws in India that allowed the government to jail anti-British protesters without a trial for up to two years.

Amritsar Massacre (1919)

A tragedy where British troops opened fire on a peaceful, unarmed crowd of Indians gathered in Amritsar, killing hundreds and turning millions into nationalists overnight.

Indian National Congress

A major political party dominated by Hindus that pushed for Indian self-rule.

Muslim League

A political party formed to protect the interests of India’s Muslim minority, fearing Hindu domination in an independent India.

Salt March (1930)

A peaceful 240-mile protest walk led by Gandhi to the sea to make salt, defying the British government's high tax and monopoly on salt.

Partition

The 1947 division of British India into two separate, independent nations: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Sykes-Picot Agreement

A secret 1916 pact between Britain and France dividing up the Ottoman Empire's Middle Eastern lands into British and French zones.

Balfour Declaration (1917)

A British statement expressing official support for the creation of a national home for Jewish people in Palestine.

Why China was ripe for revolution (1911)

Foreign nations controlled China’s economy via spheres of influence, and the weak Qing Dynasty proved completely incapable of modernizing or resisting foreign control.

Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles

Nationalism (freedom from foreign control), People’s Rights (democracy), and People’s Livelihood (economic security).

Kuomintang and CCP alliance points

They united in the 1920s to defeat local military warlords, and later formed an uneasy alliance in 1937 to fight off the brutal invasion by imperial Japan.

Why Chinese Civil War broke out (1928)

Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the communists during the Shanghai Coup, slaughtering thousands of CCP members out of fear they would turn China into a communist state.

Impact of WWI on India and China

Both sent thousands of men to help Allies, expecting freedom or self-rule. When Allies broke promises, it sparked massive anti-colonial protests.

Gandhi's nonviolent tactics

Boycotts of British goods (especially clothing), refusal to pay unfair taxes (like the Salt March), peaceful marches, and hunger strikes.

Gandhi's effect on Indian nationalism

He transformed Indian nationalism from an elite, middle-class movement into a massive, unified movement that brought together all classes of Indian society.

How WWI shaped modern Middle East

The defeated Ottoman Empire was broken up. Under the League Mandate System, Britain and France drew artificial borders and took control of Iraq, Syria, and Palestine.

Turkey vs. Iran vs. Saudi Arabia

Turkey: Aggressively secular and westernized under Ataturk. Iran: Modernized infrastructure but kept authoritarian ruler. Saudi Arabia: Unified strictly under traditional Islamic laws and absolute monarchy.