The document summarizes key developments in nationalism and independence movements in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America between 1919 and 1939. It discusses the decline of the Ottoman Empire and rise of Turkish nationalism under Ataturk; the establishment of nation-states in the Middle East and conflicts over Palestine; independence movements in India led by Gandhi and growing tensions between Hindus and Muslims; the rise of militarism in Japan in the 1930s; communist and nationalist revolutions in China led by Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek; and the growth of nationalist sentiments in Latin America against foreign imperialism.

1. 1919 CE – 1939 CE

2. Nationalism in the Middle East
• Ottoman Empire in decline – losing territory and power throughout the
Middle East
• In 1875, Ottoman reformers seized the government and adopted a
constitution; the new sultan, Abdulhamid II suspended the constitution and
led an authoritarian government
• A group of reformers called the Young Turks were able to force the
restoration of the constitution in 1908; they deposed the sultan the next year
• The Young Turks lacked strong support for their government and the stability
of the empire was challenged, especially by ethnic Turks who wanted a
Turkish state
• The Ottoman empire aligned with Germany in World War I; the British
undermined Ottoman rule by supporting Arabian nationalists in the Middle
East
• In 1915, the Ottoman Empire massacred Armenian Christians who were
pressing for independence from the Empire; within seven months, 600,000
Armenians had been killed and 500,000 deported; 400,000 of the deported
died while walking through Syria and Mesopotamia; by September, 1 million
Armenians were dead, victims of genocide, or the deliberate mass murder of
a particular racial, political, or cultural groups

3. Middle East, 1919-1935

4. Emergence of Turkish Republic
• After World War I the Ottoman Empire collapsed
• Great Britain and France made plans to divide up the Ottoman territories
in the Middle East; present-day Turkey remained under Ottoman control
• Greece invaded Turkey and seized the western parts of the Anatolian
Peninsula
• Turkish people organized under the leadership of Colonel Mustafa
Kemal, who resigned from the army and summoned a national congress
calling for the creation of an elected government and a new Republic of
Turkey
• Kemal’s forces drove the Greeks from the peninsula and in 1923, the last
of the Ottoman sultans left the country, which was now officially the
Turkish Republic

5. Modernization of Turkey
• President Kemal was known as Ataturk, or “father Turk”. He tried to
transform Turkey into a modern state.
• A democratic system was put in place but Ataturk did not tolerate
opposition and silenced his critics.
• He eliminated Arabic elements from the Turkish language, created public
education, and forced Turkish citizens to adopt last names, like European
countries
• Ataturk modernized Turkey by building factories and he attempted to
modernize farming
• Ataturk tried to create a secular state – one not based on religion – by
abolishing the Turkish caliphate in 1924. Laws that were previously based
on Islam were changed and women were granted new rights

6. Modern Iran
• Persia was going through a change similar to Turkey
• Under the Qajar dynasty (1794-1925), the country had difficulties with
domestic problems and turned to Russia and Great Britain for help, which led
to an increasing foreign presence
• The discovery of oil in 1908 attracted more foreign interest
• A Persian nationalist movement started in the 1920s; Reza Khan, an officer
in the Persian army, led a military mutiny that seized control of Tehrann;
Khan established himself as the Shah (king)
• Reza Shah Pahlavi (the name he took) tried to institute reforms like
Turkey’s, including strengthening and modernizing the government, the
military, and the economic system; he did not try to remove Islamic beliefs
• Reza grew closer to Nazi Germany because foreign interests pressured him
with increasing demands for access to oil; the Soviet Union and Great Britain
sent troops into Persia to remove the large number of Germans there; Reza
Shah Pahlavi resigned and was replaced by his son

7. Arab Nationalism
• World War I offered the Arabs an opportunity to escape from Ottoman
rule
• During the war, Britain supported Arab nationalist (because they had the
same interests – defeating the Ottoman Empire)
• After the war, Britain and France issued mandates for the Middle East
that had the League of Nations supervising the region
• The League of Nations granted governing rights to Great Britain, who
governed Iraq, Palestine, and Jordan, while France was given Syria and
Lebanon
• In the 1920’s, a reform leader, Ibn Saud united Arabs in the northern part
of the Arabian Peninsula and established the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in
1932
• Saudia Arabia began as a poor country, but the discovery of oil made the
country incredibly wealthy

8. Problems with Palestine
• Palestine was considered the homeland of the Jewish people, who had lived
there in large numbers in the distant past
• In the early 1900’s, Palestine was inhabited primarily by Muslims, with few Jews
or Christians
• Britain supported a national home for the Jews and issued the Balfour
Declaration in 1917: “His Majesty’s Government views with favor the
establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”
• Arab nationalists were angry and questioned how a national home for the Jewish
people could be established in an area that was 80% Muslim
• Jewish settlers began arriving in Palestine and the Zionist movement drew more;
by the 1930s, tension between the Jews and Muslims was high
• More Jews arrived as Nazi Germany started persecuting the Jews; by 1939 there
were 450,000 Jews in Palestine; the British, worried about the tension in the
area, restricted immigration to 75,000 Jews over five years – a decision that
would lead to even greater conflict and problems in the region

9. Nationalism in Africa
• Africans fought in World War I in both the British
and French armies; they hoped to earn
independence after the war
• After World War I, Africans became more
politically active and began protesting foreign
governments
• Reform movements occurred all over the
continent:
• in Kenya, Harry Thuku protested the removal of
taxes to England; he was arrested and people
were slaughtered by the British when they
protested his arrest
• In Libya, Omar Mukhtar used guerrilla warfare
against the Italians; the Italians responded by
creating camps and crushing the revolt
New leaders that had been educated abroad began Despite all the pressure from reform
to call for African independence; men like movements, Africa would not see
W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, educated success in gaining independence until
in America, stressed the need for a movement
known as Pan-Africanism, or the unity of all after World War II
Africans

10. Independence in India
Mohandas Gandhi was active in the movement for Indian self-rule prior
to World War I
He was referred to as Mahatma or “Great Soul” by Indians
Gandhi was a believer in non-violent resistance or civil disobedience, or
the refusal to obey laws that are unjust
The British responded violently to the Indian independence movement
and killed hundreds of unarmed protestors in Amritsar; Gandhi briefly left
active politics in response; he spent several years in prison as a result of
his role in the protests
In 1935, Great Britain passed the Government of India Act, which
expanded the role of Indians in the governing process and provided the
Indians with an elected two-house parliament
The Indian National Congress (INC) was created in 1885 to seek reforms
in Britain’s government of India; a new leader, Motilal Nehru wanted to
push for full independence
Gandhi, who believed love could overcome hate and non-violence could overcome violence, continued his campaign
for independence throughout India; he encouraged Indians to avoid British schools, products, and laws
In the 1930s, a new figure entered the movement, Jawaharlal Nehru entered the reform movement; he took a
secular, Western, and modern approach against the British
India was also experiencing difficulties between Hindus and Muslims; which eventually led to the creation of a
separate Muslim state of Pakistan

11. Rise of Military Japan
In Japan, manufacturing was concentrated in an enterprise called zaibatsu, which was both industrial
and financial, and became huge corporations that controlled major segments of Japan’s industry
By 1937, the four largest zaibatsu’s – Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda – controlled
21% of the banking industry, 26% of mining, and 35% of shipbuilding, plus over 60% of
manufacturing and insurance
The concentration of wealth among these companies led to economic inequalities; city workers were
poorly paid and housed, and an economic crises occurred after World War I, when increases in food
prices led to riots
Traditionalists called for a return to original Japanese values and an end to Western influence
Japan had seized land – Formosa, Korea, Manchuria – as part of their empire; this drew the concern of
Western nations, especially the U.S., who wanted to keep Asia open for U.S. trade; in 1922, the US
hosted a conference of nations that created a nine-power treaty that recognized China and affirmed
the Open Door Policy
By the end of the 1920s, Japan saw an increase in militant forces in the government; some members of
parliament believed Japan was corrupted by Western ideas, while others were angry about cuts in
military spending and the government’s pacifist (peace-based) policies
During the 1930s, civilians formed extremist patriotic organizations; army officers invaded Manchuria
without government approval in 1931; the government was against the invasion while the people
supported it; the government was rendered unable to act, and the government was soon dominated by
the military and others who supported Japanese expansionism – Japan was put on wartime status and
began preparing for expansion abroad – through force, if necessary

12. Nationalism & Revolution in Asia
New parties developed in China based on the Communist movement in the
Soviet Union – the USSR actively reached out to create these parties
throughout the world
Ho Chi Minh was a communist revolutionary who trained in Moscow in the
1920s; he formed a Communist-nationalist alliance with the USSR
By 1920, Central rule in China had ceased to exist and two competing parties
were fighting for control: the Chinese Communist party and Sun Yat-sen’s
Nationalist Party
The Chinese Communists and Sun Yat-Sen worked together with the Soviets
to mobilize and train the army to take over all of China; problems between
the two groups surfaced and Chiang Kai-Shek took control after Sun Yat-
Sen died in 1925; Chian Kai-Shek killed thousands of Communists and their
supporters in the Shanghai Massacre in 1927; by 1928, he founded a new
Chinese republic an Nanjing, where he then worked to reunify China

13. Chiang Kai-Shek’s China
After the Shanghai Massacre, most of the
Communist leaders went into hiding; they
tried to revive the movement among the
working classes
Mao Zedong,a communist organizer, led
some communists South to Chiang Jiang;
Mao believed the communists could lead a
revolution of the peasants to take over China
Chiang Kai-Sek tried to remove Communists
from Shanghai, then turned his attention to
Jiangxi Province, where Mao was recruiting
Mao used guerrilla tactics like sabotage and Chiang Kai-Shek used that time to build a
subterfuge to fight the enemy
constitutional government, carry out land
In 1934, Chiang’s troops surrounded the reforms, and modernized industry
Communist base in Jiangxi, but Mao’s army,
the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) broke He also tried to unify Western innovations with
through the lines and began their famous
Chinese tradition, setting up the New Life
Long March
Movement, that promoted Confucian ethics
Mao’s army traveled 6,000 miles to the last
communist base in northwest China (in Kai-Shek faced enormous problems, including a
purple on the map, above); many starved or
weak central government, due to wars and internal
did not survive the march, which took over a
year strife; he was able to repair roads and infrastructure
throughout China, but was less successful with land
reforms and redistribution of wealth

14. Nationalism in Latin America
In the 1920s, the United States began to The Great Depression impacted Latin American
replace Great Britain as the foremost economies that were dependent on the U.S.
investor in Latin America; large segments of
The Depression forced some Latin American
Latin America fell into the United States’
countries to develop industry
hands
A trend toward authoritarianism during the
The U.S. helped create several independent 1930s saw many Latin American countries come
republics in Central America, but their under the control of military forces or dictators
economies were dependent on the United
States Argentina was controlled by an oligarchy, a
government controlled by the wealthy; the
Latin Americans were angry by the external military helped the oligarchy maintain power
control of their countries; a growing
nationalist consciousness led them to see Brazil - in 1889, the army overthrew the
the US as an imperialist power Brazilian monarchy and established a
republic, but was ruled by the landed
The U.S. had intervened in Latin America for elites, effectively creating an oligarchy. Brazil
years, including supporting dictators, using depended on coffee exports, and the Great
military intervention, and controlling Latin Depression devastate their economy
American governments In 1930, a military coup led to a new president
who eventually made himself dictator that used
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the U.S.
secret police and other methods to control the
president announced the Good Neighbor population
Policy in 1933, which rejected the use of
military force in Latin America

15. Nationalism in Mexico
The Mexican Revolution produced a fairly Culture – Latin America was influenced by
stable political order that was democratic European artistry and literary movements
The Institutional Revolutionary Party In major cities, wealthy elites invested in
controlled the major groups in Mexican modern artists, who went abroad and
society, and the party bosses chose the brought back modern techniques
presidential candidate who was then
elected by the people One artist, Diego Rivera of Mexico, was
influenced by Italian artists; he developed
Lazaro Cardenas was elected in 1934 and a style of mural-painting that still exists in
instituted new reforms, including Mexico today
distributing land to the poor, standing up
to the U.S. over oil, and seizing control of
the oil fields and property of US oil
companies