Chapter 35
Nationalism and Political Identities in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America
1
India’s Quest for Home Rule
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The Indian National Congress was founded 1885 to promote
self-rule.
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A mixture of British and Indian intellectuals, the group met annually to
discuss more political participation for educated Indians; it was not
opposed to continued British rule initially.
Support for Congress at the beginning came from both Hindus
and Muslims.
The British encouraged the development of Muslim League
(1906) to blunt the growing power of Congress.
Congress’s original position of working with the British
changed after World War I; it moved toward opposition.
Woodrow Wilson and Lenin inspired the postwar change in
the movement’s position.
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India’s Quest for Home Rule
3
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
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Father: Karamchand Gandhi, was a high-ranking official
in a small princely state in what is now Gujarat.
His mother, Putlibai Gandhi, was a devout Jain, a sect
that preaches pacifism, vegetarianism, and selfenlightenment through strict self-control.
Gandhi was a mediocre student; his father had to pull
some strings to get him a good education.
Gandhi came to London in 1888 to study law, and after
being called to the bar, returned to India in 1891. He tried
and failed to work as a barrister in Bombay.
4
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
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In 1893—at age 24—he went to South Africa under a one-year
contract with an Indian firm. He ended up staying for 21 years.
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Indians in South Africa comprised a small group of wealthy Muslims
and a larger group of poor Hindu indentured laborers; Gandhi’s
experiences with all of these groups convinced him of their common
“Indian-ness” despite their religious and caste differences.
Gandhi was politicized by discrimination he faced on public
transportation and by a 1893 bill limiting Indian voting rights.
Gandhi opposed the precursor of the apartheid system that created a
legal framework for racial segregation and limits on the access to
political and economic freedoms for people of color (including Indians).
Because of his activism, Gandhi was nearly lynched by a white mob in
1897; only the intervention of the police saved him.
During the Boer War, he organized an Indian ambulance corps.
He developed non-violent political protest tactics while in South Africa.
5
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
Gandhi and his wife, Kasturbai, in 1902, while living in South Africa
6
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
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Gandhi returned to India 1915 and joined the Indian National
Congress. He took over its leadership in 1920, and turned it
into a truly mass movement.
Gandhi reportedly was given the title Mahatma—meaning
“great soul”—by the Indian poet and musician Rabindranath
Tagore, a title that Gandhi himself disliked.
Voiced strong opposition to the Hindu caste system; wanted an
“Indian” state that embraced peoples of all castes and religions
with national citizenship.
7
Indian Caste System
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Four “castes” or varna in Hinduism
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Brahmins – priest class
Kshatriya – governing and military class
Vaishyas – cattle herders, farmers, and merchants
Shudras – laborers, artisans, servants, and tenant farmers
“Untouchables” – This British label applies to those outside of
the caste system as punishment; they perform duties that make
one “unclean” in Hindu system of belief.
Skin Color: There is the expectation that higher castes
will be people of lighter skin color and that lower castes
will be darker. The upper castes are supposedly
descended from peoples of Central Asia who invaded.
8
Gandhi’s Passive Resistance
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Ahimsa: literally means avoidance of violence; important
concept in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Has roots in
ancient Vedic texts.
Satyagraha: passive resistance; term means “truth and
firmness,” or more literally: “insistence on truth.” Gandhi
coined the term in south Africa in 1906.
Amritsar Massacre (1919): British troops open fire on a
crowd of roughly 15,000 in the city of Amritsar with
machine guns. The official count was 379 dead, but the
number is more likely to be over 1,000.
9
Gandhi’s Passive Resistance
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Non-Cooperation Movement (19201922): Gandhi encouraged Indians not
to participate in any British
institutions—courts, schools,
government offices, etc.—and to
boycott British goods. Was very
successful, but Gandhi called it off in
1922 due to outbreaks of violence.
Civil Disobedience Movement (1930):
Gandhi’s 25-day “Salt March” to the
coastal city of Dandi picked up where
the Non-Cooperation Movement left
off, triggering a national protest
against the British salt tax.
Gandhi on the march against
the government salt production
monopoly
10
The Government of India Act (1937)
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Creation of autonomous legislature
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Muslim fears of Hindu dominance
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But 600 nominally sovereign princes refuse
to cooperate with the plan—fear what was
left of their power would be further
diminished.
Traditional economic divide in urban areas:
Muslim merchants and Hindu laborers
Economic tensions become especially severe
with Great Depression
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (18761948) proposes a partition: the
creation of the state of Pakistan.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
11
The Republic of China
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The Revolution of 1911: Many local
uprisings and revolts across the country
reveal a deep-seated resentment against
Manchu rule and its failure to modernize.
Nationalist Dr. Sun Yatsen (1866-1925) is
elected provisional president of a new
republic on Dec. 29, 1911. He proclaims the
beginning of a new Republic of China in to
being on Jan. 1, 1912.
Revolution forces the five-year-old Qing
Emperor Puyi to abdicate on Feb. 12, 1912,
ending over 2,000 years of imperial rule.
Central government is weak, leading to
political anarchy
Independent warlords exercise local control.
Emperor Puyi
Dr. Sun Yatsen c. 1911-1912
12
Sun Yatsen (1866-1925)
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Born in Guangdong Province, but
received a Western education in
Hawai’i and converted to Christianity.
Received his medical degree in Hong
Kong in 1892.
Created Nationalist People’s Party—
known as Guomindang or
Kuomintang—in 1912. Roots of the
party were in the “Revive China
Society,” which Sun founded in
Honolulu in 1894.
Flag of the first Chinese Republic,
1912-1928. Each color represents one
of the five “races”: Red for Han
Chinese, Yellow for Manchus, Blue
for Mongols, White for Muslims, and
Black for Tibetans.
13
Chinese Nationalism
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May Fourth Movement
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Began with protests on
May 4, 1919, in Beijing
Students and urban
intellectuals protest imperialism and the Chinese
government’s weak response to the Treaty of Versailles.
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Signaled a turn toward popular Chinese nationalism and especially
resentment toward Japanese interference in China’s affairs.
Suppression of the May Fourth protests marked a radicalization of
Chinese politics; many intellectuals began to reject the Western
liberalism of Wilson’s Fourteen Points and accept the principles of
Marxist thought.
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Chinese Nationalism
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Marxism increases in popularity after the May Fourth
protests of 1919.
Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai in
1921 with its first meeting; Mao Zedong attends as the
Hunan Province representative.
By 1924, the Guomindang welcomed members of the
Chinese Communist Party into its ranks, and assured full
cooperation.
The Guomindang also accepted aid from the Soviet Union
at this time.
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Chinese Nationalism
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Mao Zedong was born in 1893 in a village in
Hunan Province, in the southern central part of
the country, to a peasant family.
Mao’s father had been born poor, but became
successful as a grain merchant.
He was a secondary school (high school)
student in Hunan Province when the 1911
revolution broke out, and joined the
Mao in 1921
revolutionary army.
After graduating from a teachers’ college, Mao became an assistant
librarian at Beijing University and attended lectures.
After returning to Hunan to become a headmaster of a school, Mao
attends the first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.
In 1923, he is elected one of the five commissars of the Central
Committee, and on his path to power.
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The Republic of China
Regions controlled by
various warlord factions
in 1926
17
Civil War
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Jiang Jieshi (also known as Chiang Kai-Shek, 18871975) takes over the Guomindang after death of Sun
Yatsen in March 1925; he is much less tolerant of
radical politics.
In 1926 Jiang launches a military expedition to unify
China and make himself leader of the country; in
1927, Jiang turned against his Communist allies,
leading to the outbreak of Civil War.
Communists flee 6,215 miles to northwest China in
1934-1936 to flee destruction at the hand of the
Nationalist; this becomes known as the Long March,
which wins much popular sentiment for the
Communists.
Mao Zedong emerges as the leaders at this time, and
also formulates a distinctly Chinese version of
communism which becomes known as Maoism.
Jiang Jieshi in 1925
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The
Struggle
for
Control
in China,
19271936
19
Imperialist Japan
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Japan signs treaties and works with
the League of Nations to limit
imperialist activity between 1922 and
Japanese Imperial Battle Flag
1928, like the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which renounced war as
an instrument of policy (initiated by the U.S. and France)
In 1925, law grants universal suffrage to all men over age 25.
Despite many democratic reforms during the 1920s in Japan, there is
considerable political chaos, with assassinations and violent
protests; Democratic institutions do not take firm hold.
Militarist, imperialist circles advocate greater assertion of Japanese
power in East Asia.
Militarists view China as a soft target.
20
The Mukden Incident of 1931
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In September 1931, Japanese troops in Manchuria in northern China
secretly blow up small parts of the Japanese-built South Manchuria
Railway as pretext for war, claiming nearby Chinese troops
committed the act.
Over opposition of Japanese civilian government, the military takes
Manchuria, renames it Manchukuo, a puppet state.
League of Nations censures Japan and Japan leaves the organization.
Democratically elected Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi (1855-1932)
tried to reign in the out-of-control military, but is assassinated on
May 15, 1932, which marks the end of any real power of the civilian
government.
In 1934, the Japanese install Puyi, the last Qing Emperor, as the
Emperor of Manchukuo, as a figurehead.
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Africa and the Great War
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African colonies participated in World War I
Allies invaded German-controlled colonies
Africans were encouraged to fight white soldiers
Many Europeans left to be deployed elsewhere; only a
“skeleton crew” of Europeans left
Weak colonial authority encouraged local rebellions and
challenges to European domination: an example was the
Mumbo cult in Kenya, which rejected Christianity and
European values and thrived from roughly 1912 to 1934.
Influence of new Pan-African ideology, in part generated
by Black Caribbean intellectuals
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Africa’s New Elite
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Postwar class of elites often influenced by education,
other experiences abroad, especially Marxism and PanAfrican ideology
Many of this group move to create modern nation-states
in Africa
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Jomo Kenyatta (1889-1978), Kenyan nationalist – studied at
University College London. Became Prime Minister upon
declaration of independence from Britain in 1963.
Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), Ghanaian nationalist – studied at
Lincoln University and University of Pennsylvania. elected Prime
Minister of British colony “Gold Coast”; Nkrumah declares
Ghanaian independence.
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Pan-African Ideology
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Marcus Garvey (1887-1940): From Jamaica,
Garvey preached a Pan-African ideology that
encouraged entrepreneurial self-independence.
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Spent 1912-1914 studying at Birbeck College in London
Founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) when
back in Jamaica in 1914.
Came to New York in 1916 to raise funds to create a school in Jamaica
like Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute.
Stays in New York and sets up a new UNIA chapter; begins publishing
influential Negro World newspaper in 1918.
In 1919 creates the Black Star shipping line with partners.
By 1920, the UNIA had four million members.
Garvey seeks to develop Liberia with a construction loan.
In 1922, he actually has a face-to-face meeting with the Ku Klux Klan.
Sentenced to five years in jail for mail fraud in 1923, but is deported in
1927.
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Pan-African Ideology
Other Caribbean Pan-African Intellectuals
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Hubert Harrison (1883-1927): Harrison was from the Danish West
Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands); moved to New York and
worked as an organizer for the American Socialist Party and
became an editor of Garvey’s Negro World in 1920.
George Padmore (1903-1959): Trinidadian journalist and writer
who was a Communist from 1927 and 1934, and then a PanAfricanist. Traveled in the U.S. and Soviet Union before settling in
London and then in Ghana late in life.
C.L.R. James (1901-1989): Influential Trinidadian historian,
literary critic, social theorist, and anti-Stalinist communist.
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961): Francophone psychiatrist, philosopher,
and revolutionary writer from Martinique who supported Algeria
during its fight for independence from France.
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Latin American Developments
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Reactions against U.S. influence; many protests
by university students
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Explore alternate political ideologies, especially Marxism
Fidel Castro (Cuba, 1926- ): Leads Cuban revolution starting in
1953 against corrupt pro-U.S. military dictator, Fulgencio
Batista, whom Castro overthrows in 1959.
José Carlos Mariátegui (Peru, 1895-1930): Journalist and
philosopher who founds Peru’s first socialist party in 1928.
Artist Diego Rivera (Mexico, 1886-1957): Famed mural painter
whose work critiques imperialist and capitalist exploitation of
Latin American peoples. Received a commission to paint a mural
in the new Rockefeller Center from 1932-1934. The mural was
destroyed because it contained a portrait of V.I. Lenin.
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Latin American Developments
Diego Rivera at work at a mural in 1933
27
United States Economic Domination
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Great War ensures U.S. domination of Latin America
Huge capital investment in Latin America; export of
raw materials
U.S. economic neocolonialism under President
William Howard Taft (1857-1931)
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“Dollar diplomacy”: The term was coined by Theodore
Roosevelt, but the strategy was used extensively by his successor,
Taft. It meant offering loans to a country in exchange for
agreeing to the U.S.’s foreign policy goals.
“Dollar Diplomacy” was not always peaceful: led to several U.S.
invasions of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua.
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The United States in Latin America,
1895-1941
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The “Good Neighbor Policy”
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)
announces the “good neighbor” policy in 1933:
non-intervention and non-interference in Latin
American affairs.
Led to the pullout of Marines from Haiti and
Nicaragua in 1934.
Leads Washington to support local leaders.
U.S. Marine serves as advisers to train local
militias rather than fight themselves.
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Nicaraguan Developments
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U.S. marines had occupied Nicaragua on and off since 1909.
Civil war broke out in the 1920s against a U.S.-imposed
conservative president.
The leftist general Augusto César Sandino begins fighting a guerilla
war against U.S. Marines in 1927, stating their presence violated
Nicaraguan sovereignty.
U.S. finds an ally in Anastacio Somoza Garcia (1896-1956), who
becomes the director of the Nicaraguan National Guard in 1933.
In 1933, a new president is elected and U.S. forces pull out.
During peace negotiations, Somoza orders Sandino’s assassination
in 1934 even though the latter had been promised his safety.
Somoza overthrows the rightfully elected president in 1936, but is
supported by the FDR administration.
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Nicaraguan Developments
Augusto Calderón Sandino
(1895 – 1934)
Anastasio Somoza García
(1896 – 1956)
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Mexican Developments
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Roosevelt formally renounces intervention as per
the Monroe Doctrine in 1933
President Lázaro Cárdenas (1895-1970)
nationalizes Mexican oil industry in 1938
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Previously controlled by U.S. and British interests
“Good Neighbor” policy leads to negotiations for compensation
rather than troops marching in.
Roosevelt convinces U.S., British businesses to
accept $24 million in compensation ($260 sought)
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U.S. wants to retain support of Mexico with approaching war
Leading up to WWII: Mexican immigrant labor is needed, so
FDR wants good relations with Mexico.
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