Unresolved Tensions After World War One

Effects from the war

• The United States prospered while Europe’s economy was devastated.

• The disastrous war showed colonized people that imperial powers could be defeated, and fueled their nationalist movements for the future.

• Colonized people who had fought for imperial powers in the first world war believed that they had earned decolonization.

• The Big Three at the Paris Peace Conference were not interested in freeing colonized peoples, and only granted self determination to those in white European countries (part of the Austria-Hungary empire).

• Colonies in the Middle East and Africa who were once ruled by Central Powers, were given to Allies rather than freeing them.

Mandate System

• Arab rebels of the Ottoman Empire who fought with the Allie powers in exchange for self-rule, were enraged when the Allies went back on their promise and instituted a mandate system to rule colonies of the Central Powers.

• Mandate System: Compromise from the Allies to handle the Central Power colonies, an sanctioned method of colonization.

• Tutelage post WW1: The required authority over colonies “not advanced” enough for self-rule.

• Pan-Arabism: Arab started movement calling for the unification of North African and Middle Eastern League of Nation mandates.

• Balfour Declaration: British government document stating that Palestine should become a permanent European Jew home.

Anti-Colonialism in South Asia

• Amritsar Massacre: In a 1919 Punjab, Sikh festival, Indian nationalists were peacefully protesting (banned by the British government) the arrest of two freedom fighters, as a result colonial forces killed/wounded around 1,500 civilians.

  • Moderate members of the Indian National Congress were convinced that independence from Britain was necessary.

• Mahatma Gandhi: Indian revolutionist and human rights activist, known for his peaceful protests against British rule over India.

• Satyagraha Movement: “devotion to truth”, this resistance started by Gandhi encouraged the Indian people to break unjust laws (Civil Disobedience).

• Salt March: Gandhi led thousands of Indians to walk across the Arabia Sea and picking up grains of salt, defying Britain’s unjust law against Indian sea salt production as they wanted a British salt monopoly.

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muslim voice in the Indian National Congress, proposed that a separate state (Pakistan) should be formed with the independence of India to prioritize Muslim interests.

Nationalism in East Asia

• After World War One, Japan took control over Korea, increasing Japanese influence over Koreans.

• March First Movement: March 1919, 2 million Koreans protested Japanese rule, displaying their powerful nationalism, and were punished brutally by Japanese forces.

• China aided Allies in WW1, hoping to regain German land, yet the officials at the Paris Peace Conference granted the land to Japan instead.

• May Fourth Movement: Anti-Japanese demonstration in China 1919, expressing Chinese nationalism and democratic desires.

• Fueled by their anger, China rejected Western Style government and adapted communism like the Soviet Union.

  • Chinese Communist Party vs Chinese Nationalist Party, fought for power with the nationalists eliminating most of the communist followers.

• Japan invaded Manchuria with force, giving up their membership in the League of Nations, and continued to expand their rule into Manchukuo, the Philippines, and more as a conqueror until WW2.

West African Resistance to French Rule

• African intellects recognized racial discrimination by colonial governments

• African workers protested discriminatory wage gaps and went on strike, spreading across the region.