1. Woodrow Wilson and the Rise of Anti-Colonial Nationalism

2. World War I
Almost ten million soldiers, sailors, and airmen were killed in combat.
Over six million civilians died, many from starvation and disease.
More than a million soldiers from Europe’s Asian and African colonies fought.
Several major empires collapsed (Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German).

3. Close to 75,000 Indian soldiers died in World War I

5. About 30,000 Senegalese soldiers died in the war

6. Roughly 30,000 Vietnamese soldiers died in combat

7. Effects of World War I on the Colonial Order
African, Asian, and Middle Eastern soldiers (and civilians) saw the war’s destruction firsthand, and expected a new world system to emerge.
European economies were severely disrupted by the war, and the United States assumed the role of the world’s leading creditor and industrial power.
Anti-colonial movements began to take shape worldwide as the European imperial powers faced the daunting task of rebuilding.

8. Woodrow Wilson (28th US President, 1913-1921)

9. Wilson’s Fourteen Points
The United States joined the Allied Powers (Britain, France, and Russia) in fighting the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) in 1917.
Wilson introduced his “Fourteen Points” to the U.S. Congress in January 1918.
It served as a template for peace negotiations between the two blocs.

10. The Fourteen Points
I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.
II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.
III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.
IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.

11. The Fourteen Points, Cntd.
VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired.
VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all.

12. The Fourteen Points, Cntd.
IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.
XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into.
XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.

13. The Fourteen Points, Cntd.
XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.
XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

14. Wilson’s Appeal
Wilson envisioned that non-European peoples would eventually be prepared for self-rule, but they would get there through gradual reforms overseen by international institutions.
Despite the fact that Wilson did not intend to recognize the full sovereignty of Europe and Japan’s colonies, his rhetoric inspired anti-colonial struggles worldwide.
He spoke of “the equality of nations” and “self-determination.” This was powerful rhetoric, particularly coming from such an esteemed leader.
Many of those who lived under colonial rule did not perceive the United States to be an imperial power, despite its meddling in Cuban affairs and its occupation of the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

15. Wilson received a hero’s welcome upon his arrival in Paris in December 1918

16. The Paris Peace Conference of January-February 1919
Main goals: establish terms of armistice in Europe, draw boundaries and set terms of national sovereignty for countries occupied by the Central Powers, establish international framework for the maintenance of peace (League of Nations), and determine the fate of Germany (reparations)
Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Korean, and other colonial independence leaders appealed to Wilson in anticipation of the conference. They circulated pamphlets, books, and made speeches proclaiming their right to self-governance. Many of these activists sent letters and petitions to Wilson himself, hoping that he would advocate on their behalf at the conference.
African-American civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois organized a Pan-African Congress to address the issues of Africa’s colonies and racial discrimination in the United States.

17. First Pan-African Congress, 1919

18. “President Wilson: The Modern Apostle of Freedom”
Published by Ganesh and Co., a well-known Indian nationalist press, shortly after the armistice of 1918.

19. A young Ho Chi Minh (then known as Nguyen Tat Thanh), Paris 1919

20. Wilson’s Rhetoric vs. Reality
Most of the letters and petitions from anti-colonial movements sent to Wilson went unacknowledged. Some European colonies successfully sent delegates to Paris, but their requests for moral and economic support went largely unheeded. Many independence leaders felt spurned and grew disillusioned with “Wilsonianism.”
Still, Wilson’s emphasis on self-determination resonated, and anti-colonial movements gained traction. Many independence activists in the non-European world clung to the hope that the United States would recognize their efforts.

21. The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 was inspired by Wilson’s Fourteen Points

22. Disillusionment with Wilsonianism
Some of the independence leaders who initially found inspiration in Wilson’s speeches sought alternative solutions once it became apparent that their grievances would not be addressed in Paris.
Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi, initially a supporter of the British war effort, turned against the colonial government after it enacted a series of laws allowing for the internment of Indian citizens without trial. The British continued with this policy even after war’s end. Though Gandhi acknowledged Wilson’s ideas, he did not believe that the American president went far enough in extending a hand to his country’s oppressed citizenry.
“India has earned herself a clown wearing a flaming red turban as representative to the Peace Conference…but the demands of the Indian people have not been granted. Korea bewails the loss of its independence…but it was simply ignored by the Peace Conference. So much for national self-determination! I think it’s really shameless!” – Mao Zedong, 1919

23. The Russian Revolution and its Influence
World War I exacted a heavy toll on Russian society. As a result, Tsar Nicholas II became extremely unpopular and revolutionary activity increased.
The Russian Revolution (1917) culminated in a victory for the Bolsheviks. Vladimir Lenin, the father of the revolution, proclaimed that the Russian Communists would support “the liberation of all colonies; the liberation of all dependent, oppressed, and non-sovereign peoples.”

24. Vladimir I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, 1922

25. Communism’s Appeal
Many independence advocates turned to Marxism-Leninism when it appeared that much of the colonial order would remain in place after World War I.
Though two World Wars severely weakened Europe, the imperial powers continued to try and exert control over their colonies.
France re-established control over Indochina after World War II and fought a bloody war ( ) against Ho Chi Minh’s nationalists.
Britain tried to maintain control over India and its African colonies, but faced formidable opposition. India achieved independence in 1947 and many African colonies declared independence in the 1960s and 1970s. Though many anti-colonial activists were not Communists, many looked to the Soviet Union for support.
“For us the problem is not to make a utopian and sterile attempt to repeat the past, but to go beyond…It is a new society that we must create, with the help of our brother slaves…For some examples showing that this is possible, we can look to the Soviet Union.” – Aimé Césaire

26. Sources Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History
Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anti-Colonial Nationalism