Decolonization in the Post-WWI Era

AP World History II

Where to focus…

• India• Egypt• Turkey• Palestine• Africa

India

• Colonization occurs long before Africa, therefore decolonization begins earlier

• Indian National Congress Party– Formed in 1885 with British blessing– Forum through which views of educated Indians could

be made aware to the British government– Members become alarmed at growing racism of Brits to

Indians…realization of shared grievances, and growth of common Indian identity

India

• ¾ Hindu, ¼ Muslim– Early nationalist

leaders built strong Hindu base…alienating Muslims.

– B.G. Tilak was unconcerned as to the religious split

India

• B.G. Tilak– Nationalism should be built upon Hindu

religiosity– Restoration and revival of ancient Hindu

traditions– Opposed Women’s education– Turned Hindu festivals into mass political

demonstrations– Broke with Congress-party leadership– Demanded boycott of British-manufactured

goods– Called for Indians to refuse service in colonial

administration and military– DEMANDED FULL INDEPENDENCE

• Threatened violent rebellion if not achieved immediately

India

• Reaction to Tilak was mixed…– Increased Hindu rhetoric

resulted in Tilak’s exile in Burma for 6 years

– Muslims, Sikhs, and other religions became increasingly wary of his tactics fearing a radical Hindu state

• In an effort to moderate the nationalist demands, Britain passes the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909

- Allowed educated Indians the opportunity to vote and serve on political councils

India

• After World War I…– Brits refuse to honor wartime promises (surprise?)– Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (1919):

• Increase the power of Indian legislators at the all-India level

– Rowlatt Act (1919):• Places severed restrictions on Indian civil rights (ex. freedom

of press)

India

• Mohandas Gandhi– Appealed to

Western-educated and the masses

– Non-violent resistance

• Peaceful boycotts• Strikes• Non-cooperation• Mass

demonstrations• Satyagraha, or

truth force (soul force)

Egypt

• Nationalism emerges before European conquest and domination– Uprisings which led to

the British occupation in 1882 were aimed to overthrow the Turkish Khedives who controlled Egypt

– British occupation meant DOUBLE-COLONIZATION!

Egypt

• Starting in 1883 Lord Cromer (Sir Evelyn Baring) became High Commissioner of Egypt– Pushed for economic reforms– Bureaucratic reform– Irrigation systems, and other public

works projects– Beneficiaries:

• Middle and elite classes, foreign merchants, Turco-Egyptian political elite, Egyptian bourgeoisie in Cairo, and the ayan (rural landlords)

Egypt

• The Khedival Regime and the Ayan were closely allied to the British overlords.

• The cause of Egyptian independence would therefore lie in the hands of the business and professional families that made up the middle class…the EFFENDI (specifically, the Sons of the Effendi)

• In India, lawyers dominate the nationalism scene, whereas in Egypt, it is middle class journalists, etc.– Unlike in India, Egyptian nationalist political parties

never built a mass base.

Egypt

• Dinshawai Incident (1906)– British officials punish peasants harshly for minor

uprising– Showed the racial arrogance purported by European

colonizers– Helped to build support in Egypt aimed at protesting the continued occupation of Egypt– By 1913, Britain granted the Egyptians a constitution

and representation in a parliament

Egypt

• Defense of the Suez Canal was a priority for

the British during WWI. – Consequently, heavy numbers of Entente forces were

stationed in Egypt, causing a drain on the already scarce food supply.

– Martial law was declared– Forced labor, and animal confiscations from the

peasantry

Egypt

• Delegation (wafd in Arabic) of Egyptian leaders was denied permission to travel to Versailles bring their case for self-determination to the Allies at the peace conference.– Leaders call for mass demonstrations– Student-led riots– Women actively took part in

demonstrations

• The Wafd party provides the unifying force needed for unified action and a mass bass

Egypt

• British withdrawal from Egypt begins in 1922, and ends in 1936 with the withdrawal from the Suez Canal Zone.

• Wafd Party government does little to end social misery of the masses

• Military coup by Gamal Abdul Nasser in 1952

Turkey

• After WWI, the Ottoman Empire disappears from history.

• The Allies were intent to carve up Turkish land, and distribute amongst themselves (particularly Greece and Italy)

• By 1923, Mustafa Kemal, or Ataturk organized the push to drive the Greeks from the Turkish homeland.

Turkey

• Ataturk founded Turkey based on these six principles:– republicanism (based on the premise that sovereignty belongs to

the people)– Turkish nationalism (emphasizing the glories of the Turkish past

and the need for the Turks to build their own state according to modern principles and without foreign intervention)

– populism (the idea that the people ruled through the Grand National Assembly, with all economic and social interests represented)

– secularism (dictating complete separation between the Muslim religious establishment and the state)

– statism (meaning state intervention in major sectors of the economy and its control of the rest, so as to assure rapid economic development)

– revolutionism (dictating that all these changes be instituted at once and in full so that Turkish society could develop as rapidly as possible).

Turkey

• Ataturk pushed through a series of important reforms aimed at modernizing and westernizing Turkey.– New, Latin alphabet– Women’s suffrage– Secularization– Western oriented calendar– Western styles of dress

The Middle East

• The Sherif of Mecca (governor of Mecca: the governor or chief magistrate of Mecca during the years of Ottoman Turkish rule), Hussein encourages Arabs to fight with the Allies during WWI in opposition to Turkish forces

• Entente powers violate promises made to Arab leaders.• European leaders occupy Middle

Eastern lands in each of their MANDATES in Syria, Iraq, and

Lebanon

Palestine/Israel

• Pogroms (violent attacks) on Jews throughout the 19th century convinced Leon Pinsker and other Jewish intellectuals that assimilation of the Jews into Christian societies was impossible.

• Zionism was a movement centered around Jewish intellectuals aimed at returning Jews to their native Holy Land in Palestine

Palestine/Israel

• Motivated by the Dreyfus Affair, Theodore Herzl organized western and eastern Jews to form the World Zionist Organization– It’s central aim was to promote Jewish migration to and

settlement in Palestine– Indifference towards Arabs living in the area

Palestine/Israel

• In 1917, after WWI, Lord Balfour of Britain announced that his government would promote the establishment of Jewish Homeland in Palestine after the war.– Britain received a League of

Nations mandate in 1922 to control Palestine.

– These promises seemed as a double-betrayal by the Entente Powers to Arabs

Palestine/Israel

• Rising Arab opposition to the emigration of Jews to Palestine caused the British to severely curtail their support of the Balfour promises.– Zionist leaders begin to mistrust the

British– Encourages Zionist leaders to build up

their own defenses against the rising Arab resistance.

– Palestinian needs and desires were not voiced through strong leadership in the coming years

Africa

• In response to war-time promises made to Africans in exchange for their military service, which never materialized, Africans began to organize pan-African organizations to support the cause of African unity again the foreign presence.– Marcus Garvey– W.E.B. DuBois

– Negritude Literary Movement

Africa

• Most of African Independence would be achieved well after WWII, but the movements themselves began during the inter-war period