U.S./Global History
W:U4C16S2- Nationalist Movements in Africa and the Middle East (pgs. 424-428)
1) Resistance to Colonial Rule
a) As in the Americas, Epn colonists in Africa & the ME showed remarkable
disregard for the local population and their prior claims to ownership
i) Often, local residents were forced onto inferior land so that the white
settlers could have the most attractive & productive land, & were then
forced to grow cash crops rather than food crops to support Epn econ’ies
b) Resistance to these changes was common, especially among more educated
Africans, who knew of the Epns' own ideas of Enlightenment, equality, etc.
i) Another influence was Marxism-Leninism, which suggested that masses
of poor, downtrodden people could overcome the powerful upper class
c) Protests were common in Africa, & one Nigerian protest became known as
the "Women's War" when women, who had always had control of their own
finances and businesses, revolted unsuccessfully against the British
d) Between 1910 & 1940, whites in South Africa consolidated their power by
creating an entire system of segregation and legalized discrimination
i) At 1st, the new laws restricted blacks from the best mining jobs, but then
laws were written requiring blacks to carry ID, & which restricted travel
ii)Blacks evicted from their lands & forced to live on desolate "reserves"
U.S./Global History
W:U4C16S2- Nationalist Movements in Africa and the Middle East (pgs. 424-428)
iii) Blacks were not allowed to vote, & in 1948, the South African
government made apartheid the official state policy
iv) Apartheid set up social classes based on racial "purity," with whites
having the most rights & opportunities, Africans having the least
v) Even so, South Africa became the home of the African Nat’l Congress, a
nationalistic movement that agitated for a return of rights to Africans
2) Rise of Nationalism
a) In the 1920s, a new "Pan-African" movement evolved, in which it was
suggested that all Africans should unite to promote their own interests
i) Among their most prominent advocates was Marcus Garvey, a black
Jamaican who was promoted as the likely president of an United Africa
b) Another major leader for the Pan-African movement was W.E.B. DuBois,
who tried to organize Pan-Africanists into a coherent political body
i) They met in Paris at the Pan-African Congress during the 1919 peace
negotiations, but they were largely ignored by the allies
c) Another movement which promoted African pride & nationalism was the
negritude movement, which celebrated the beauty and accomplishments of
the African people and their various cultures
U.S./Global History
W:U4C16S2- Nationalist Movements in Africa and the Middle East (pgs. 424-428)
d) The sole exception to the oft-ignored African bids for freedom & justice
was Egypt, where the British were forced to give them their indep. in 1922
i) Egypt was/is a multicultural country, where the many peoples united in
their opposition to British rule. They all joined the Wafd party, & used
strikes & rioting to convince the British that it was too hard to keep them
ii)Britain declared Egypt formally independent in 1922 under King Saud (a
puppet king), although they maintained control over the Suez Canal
3) Modernization in Turkey and Iran
a) When the Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1918, many regions of the former
empire became independent, although the Turks still controlled Anatolia
b) Soon after the war, Turkey experienced a revolution against the Turkish
sultan led by a nationalist named Mustafa Kemal
i) Kemal set about modernizing the nation, & Kemal himself adopted the
name Ataturk ("father of the Turks")- Ataturk & his supporters sought to
modernize Turkey, and pushed through a number of reforms designed to
bring Turkey into line with the successful Western powers of Europe
c) Ataturk promoted many reforms based upon the West, including a revised
legal system & calendar, new public schools and a secular state
U.S./Global History
W:U4C16S2- Nationalist Movements in Africa and the Middle East (pgs. 424-428)
i) He insisted on the Roman alphabet & Western clothing, even for women,
who gained other rights, as well, including the right to have jobs
ii)Monogamy replaced polygamy as the norm, and the latter was outlawed
iii) Ataturk also pushed for rapid industrialization and industrial growth,
spending public money on railroads and factories
d) A similar process occurred in Iran- here, Reza Khan, an army officer,
overthrew the Shah (king) in 1925, and established the Pahlavi dynasty
i) He, too, tried to modernize the nation, & he emphasized Western dress &
customs, a secular Western legal system, & the Roman alphabet
ii)Like Ataturk, he met a great deal of resistance from the Muslim leaders,
who saw his policies as sacrilegious and dangerous
4) European Mandates and Arab Nationalism
a) Pan-Arabism was another movement which tried to link culturally similar
peoples into an united pol’l front- emphasized former glory of the Arabs
b) The Arabs, who had helped the Allies against the Ottomans, had expected
independence from the Paris Peace Conference, but they were disappointed
i) Instead of gaining their own states, they were mandated out to the
winning Allied powers, primarily to the British and French
U.S./Global History
W:U4C16S2- Nationalist Movements in Africa and the Middle East (pgs. 424-428)
c) The Allies made two promises near the end of the war, to liberate Arab
nations, & to set up a Jewish homeland in Palestine, a British mandate
i) This promise, the “Balfour Declaration,” became a major point of
contention, since the British essentially agreed to give up Palestinian land
so that the Jews could have a homeland there