Movements in the Middle East

Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire:

The Ottoman Turks lost a lot of territory and the Ottoman rule had ended in the 19th
century when France seized Algeria and Tunisia. France and Britain seized a lot of the old
Ottoman Empire. The only country the Ottoman Turks kept was Turkey.
The Modernization 0f Turkey:
Ataturk became an admired leader in Turkey after defending the country and regaining
land in the 1920s. He attempted to break the power of the Islamic religion in government, and he
also tried to modernize farming; however, he had little effect on the nations peasants. Women
were forbidden to wear the veil a traditional Islamic custom.
The Beginnings of Modern Iran:
The discovery of oil in the southern part of the country (formerly known as Persia) in
1908 attracted greater foreign interest. Growing foreign involvement led to a nationalist
movement, and in 1921, Reza Khan led a military coup. Adopting the name Reza Shah Pahlavi,
Reza Khan established himself as a new Shah (or leader). Like Ataturk, he attempted to
modernize his country; however, he did not try to break the power of the Islamic religion on
government. In 1935, Persia became the modern nation of Iran.
Arab Nationalism:
World War I offered the Arabs an opportunity to escape from Ottoman rule, especially
after foreign agents like T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) supported Arab nationalist
movements. After the war, much of the Arabian Peninsula were supervised by the League of
Nations. In 1932, Ibn Saud gained broad support in the peninsula and established the kingdom
of Saudi Arabia. The region was mostly poor until American prospectors discovered oil in 1938.
The Problem of Palestine:
The area of Palestine fell under British rule as a mandate under the League of Nations
after the war. The Balfour Declaration stated the British government support for a Jewish
homeland in Palestine. It attracted more Jews to the area, especially after Hitlers rise to power
in Germany and increased anti-Semitism, and violence between Jews and Muslims erupted.

Movements in Africa & Asia

Movements toward Independence in Africa:
After WWI, Germany was stripped of its African colonies, and Britain and France gained
them. African soldiers who served in WWI for colonial empires recognized the difference in
Western ideals and practices, and so they sought reform. Protests over high taxes by Africans led
to the movement for independence in Kenya. Some movements sought independence through
violence; others took the advice of W.E.B. Dubois and Marcus Garvey, and urged nonviolence,
education, and cultural awareness as methods to gain independence, which would not come until
after WWII.
The Movement for Indian Independence:
Mohandas Gandhi was a well-known leader for using his methods of civil disobedience
or refusal to obey unjust laws and nonviolence, which began in 1914. By 1935, Indians made
achieved a giant reform when Great Britain passed the Government of India Act, which created
the Indian Parliament and allowed a small percentage of Indians to vote.
Rise of Militarist Japan:
Japan wanted to follow the Wests footsteps and modernize and expand. The United
States worried about Japans expansion, which led to treaties recognizing Chinese and Japanese
borders and maintaining the Open Door Policy. Japan was more democratic, but the peoples
desire for expansion led to a rise in military power. Militant leaders stressed traditional Japanese
values.
Nationalism and Revolution in Asia:
Ideals of Karl Marx soon became powerful tools. Communism began to spread
throughout the Asian colonies, and soon local communist parties would join with national parties
to combat Western imperialism. Communist parties did not last in many and failed to build a
secure base of support.

Movements in China
In the 1920s, most of China was controlled by two main groups: the Nationalists and the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Under the advice of Comintern agents from the Soviet Union,
the CCP joined the more experienced nationalists to combat local warlords and unite China. In
1925, Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Nationalists, died and was succeeded by the general Chiang
Kai-shek.
Chiang pretended to support the alliance with the communists until April 1927 when he
struck against the communists and their supporters in the Shanghai Massacre, killing thousands.
Led by Mao Zedong, the CCPs militant wing (army) Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) fought
against Chiang Kai-shek using guerilla warfare (e.g. hit-and-run tactics, blending into the
population/ not uniformed, etc.). Eventually surrounded, Mao and ninety-thousand PLA troops
broke through and begin the Long March to safety in the hills of North China. Of the ninetythousand troops that had embarked on the journey, only nine-thousand survived. The
Communists seem finished.
With the Nationalists in control, they pushed for their goal of modernizing the country
through industry. However, to do this, they needed to sell modernization as consistent with
ancient Confucian values. Thus Chiang and his wife Mei-ling began a New Life Movement,
which promoted traditional values like integrity, modesty, and righteousness while rejecting the
notion that modernization would mean accepting the excessive individualism and material greed
of Western capitalism.

Movements in Latin America

Beginning in the 1920s, the United States began to replace Great Britain as the foremost
investor in Latin America. U.S. investors put their funds directly into production enterprises and
ran companies themselves in Latin America, making them fall into their hands. This angered
many Latin Americans because they viewed the U.S. as an imperialist power whose profits from
U.S. businesses were used to keep dictators in power.
Argentina was an oligarchy, but then the people elected a radical leader named Hipolitio
Irigoyen. However, in 1930, President Irigoyen was overthrown in a military coup, and the old
oligarchy came to power again. During WWII, a group of military officers created a group
called the Group of United Officers (GOU), who overthrow the oligarchy and elected Juan Peron
as president.
The Brazilian monarchy was overthrown and became a republic. When the Great
Depression started in 1929, it hurt Brazils economy harshly, which depended upon the price of
coffee (Brazil produced of the worlds coffee). In 1930, a military coup helped make Getulio
Vargas, a wealthy rancher, president. He initially appealed to workers, but by 1938, he had
declared himself dictator and established an authoritarian state. In 1945, he was forced to resign.
In Mexico, President Lazaro Cardenas was elected in 1934. He took a stand against
foreign oil companies and seized control of the oil fields and property of the oil companies. The
Mexican government did pay the oil companies for their property (this is called reimbursement
when you refund or repay a person or entity. Think of insurance companies if you pay into
insurance for your car and get into an accident, they will reimburse you for the amount of
damages, value of the car, or some other figure; in other words, the Mexican government took
the land from the oil companies, but reimbursed them for the value of the land). Mexicans
cheered Cardenas as the president who had stood up to the U.S.