Nationalist Movements of the Middle East and South Asia after WW1

At the end of the War, changes in political structures were evident in many countries,

During World War l, around the time July 28, 1914 throughout the years, coming to an end on November 11, 1918, issues were involved. Many alliances fostered militarism. Around the time 1914, adhesion was building upon the European nations. While the Americans were at war, the German kingdom of Prussia was launched to unite the German states all into one nation. By that time, imperialism ran through something called annexation. Something else called military conquest and dealings with economic dominations. All of that being said was how European powers built upon empires. Therefore nationalism was strong to what was going on around the time of war.

In 1939 World War II broke out in Europe. Britain proclaimed India’s involvement in the war without consulting the Indian people. This led to increased protest and volatility. In 1942 India established a national army and proposed the Quit India Movement. This movement promised to lend Indian military support to Britain in return for complete independence. If they refused this treaty the Indian people promised civil disobedience. In 1947 India was granted its independence and became self governing (Luscombe, 2012). On January 26, 1950 the Republic of India was proclaimed and it drafted a constitution. The first democratic elections were held in 1952. However the Hindus and Muslims were not united and colonial India was divided into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India (History, 2010).

The start of the 20th century was marked by a strong sense of nationalism in many European powers. This shared patriotism, was evoked by many governments to gain support about becoming a part in World War I. Many people bought into this sense of belonging and sought to fight for

The decades following World War II were all centered on the concept of decolonization, the dismantlement of Imperial empires established prior to World War I throughout Africa and Asia. Due to the aftermath of World War II, countries around the world experienced massive independent movements whose objective was to eliminate colonization and form new independent nations. The process of decolonization was separated by three different approaches: civil war, negotiated independence through foreign pressure, and violent incomplete decolonization. China, for example, had its internal struggles with Nationalistic and Communist parties conflicting that caused a civil war between the two

Large busy markets, snake charmers, carpet vendors, and veiled women all invoke ideas of West Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia, but all these ideas come from Oriental fantasies from the nineteenth century. Edward Said the author of Orientalism said that “Orientalism was ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar (Europe, West, "us") and the strange (the Orient, the East, "them").” The nineteenth century was a period of imperialism and tourism that led many western artists to visit West Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Orientalist paintings depicted two major effects, many artists often portrayed something “exotic,” which was racialized, feminized, and from a sexualized culture from a faraway land. Another effect that artists mainly like Jean-Léon Gérôme often showed was an authentic glimpse of a location and its inhabitants. Nochlin mentioned that many of Gérôme’s paintings worked to persuade their audiences by carefully representing a "preexisting Oriental reality.”

The Great War, rose due to nationalism and competition among the European Powers. It was the first war with advanced technology, which was devoted particularly to military purposes, causing unimaginable damages and socio-political conflicts. From the 1919 to the 1930, North America and the Middle East responded similarly to World War I in social aspects by giving minority groups more rights, leading these regions towards equality. On the other hand, these regions responded differently in political and economic aspects. North America received all the benefits of the Allies, the winning countries, while regions in the Middle East were punished by the Treaty of Versailles, given their alliance with the Central powers.

The Middle East started out being controlled by the Ottoman Empire. On the map in document 1 it is very clear that from 1683- 1914 the control was shrinking in size but still majority of the Middle East. This shows that before world War one control over the Middle East was declining a lot which will represent a huge change after the war. The war began and the Ottoman Empire was coming to an end

World War One was an event that devastated the globe in such a way that was felt by all of the individual nations of the world. Many events prior to the beginnings of the war acted as a precursor to the chaos. The late eighteenth century and all throughout the nineteenth century was an era of revolution. Ordinary citizens and others hoping for liberty and justice in all of their respective nations found their voices. Out of the great “new” societies the people established arose a mutual sense of nationalism and also a state of vulnerability. The vulnerability factor brought about a system of alliances, whereas the snarky nationalism birthed a period of competitive colonization and festered until it became a dangerous weapon known as militarism.

After the war, the regions that were involved found themselves being in financial constraint. This is because they had used all their resources in purchasing the war weapons. As a result, the spending by the government of the day during that time exceeded the country’s income. This meant poverty to the country and its citizens. Also, the rate of unemployment among citizens was rampant leading to widespread poverty.

Well talking about the Nationalist moves of the countries in 20th century, what we can see is some countries started fighting for its freedom. After Second World War, the Salt march by Indian National congress and Muslim league of India lead by Mahatma Gandhi

Nationalism is defined as a nation’s, or ethnicities, desire to become an independent autonomous state. The Greek, Albanian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Macedonian nations’ nationalistic centrifugal force started the break up of the Empire in mid 19th century. All of the nations listed above became states by the time World War One began in 1914. This nationalistic movement happen under many Sultans, but it intensified under Abdülhamid II and finally under Murad V. It was Abdülhamid II who tried to curve the nationalistic movements, which were also sweeping through Europe, by introducing the Tanzimat Reforms of 1834 and 1856, at the request of European pressure.

At the start of the 18th century, Middle Eastern countries witnessed their Eastern neighbors being overtaken by Western Europe and were faced with a choice: to pick apart or to be picked apart. It was from this dilemma that defensive developmentalism emerged in the Middle East. Empires such as the Ottomans, Persia, Tunisia, and Egypt began the process of centralizing their authority in order to assert effective control over their populations. The chief goal of defensive developmentalism for these empires was to assert their autonomy, whether that be autonomy from the Ottomans in the case of Egypt and Tunisia, or from outside imperialists in the Ottoman Empire and Persia. In order to accomplish these goals, defensive developmentalists undertook extensive reforms to establish their empires as relevant worldwide powers.

Before the war, nationalism had swept through the world, most notably playing a role in other

World War I occurred as a result of a number of political, social, and economic changes that were taking place at a rapid pace in the region. A prominent transformation was the onset of industrial revolution that accompanied these changes. Many countries were investing significantly in industrialization while undergoing transformation that was changing the face of society. To enhance patriotism and to achieve objectives that were otherwise impossible, political forces were utilizing notions like nationalism. In this scenario, the colonies of European nations became the cause of significant rivalry and disputes, settled only after the blood of millions was shed. The war had far-reaching consequences for all nations that were involved in the conflict such that the entire boundaries of many countries were remarked. This paper will discuss the impact of nationalism, industrialization, and colonialism on WWI and its occurrence.