World War I: Changing Societies In The 19th Century

Towards the late 19th century and in the early 20th century the world was changing at a rapid pace. World War I had a left an enormous hole in Europe’s economy and they were doing everything they could to compensate for their losses. The theme that connects all of these societies is change. Cultures were changing in some places and some were not handling as well as others. Changes were affecting societies in Asia, The Middle East, and South America. Change did not come easy to any of these societies because cultures were being banished which caused internal and external challenges. The contest for power was complex before all of these changes affected their societies but now it was more complicated than ever. In the late 19th and early
20th century the countries that were in The Middle East, Asia, and South America had challenges that were beyond measure. After World War I the west’s social and political base was split apart and the strength that it held within was disappearing. Europe had many doubts about the west because everything in the west was splitting up especially the intellectual elite. “Sutan Sjahrir was a prominent leader of the Indonesian nationalist movement.” Sutan came to the realization that by utilizing intelligence and attitude he was more similar to his colonial masters or the Dutch than to his Indonesian roots. The lifestyle that the Indonesians take on is constantly displeasing to Sutan. In his letter to his wife in 1935 he explains his feeling of separation from his people. He also explains how in Holland they can build upon what they have already where as in his home country it is the opposite. “Here there has been no spiritual or cultural life, and no intellectual progress for centuries.” The intellectuals where he is positioned are more like Europe or America rather than Borobudur or Mahabharata. Instead of searching using reason and intelligence they go into darkness looking for something to cure them. Nationalism is spreading throughout Europe case in point would be the Nationalist Revolt in the Middle East. World War I sped up the destruction of old empires. There was a decline of the Ottoman Empire although there was an attempt to stop the trend. Greece became independent and there was a rising sense of nationality among the minority peoples, which opposed a threat to the empire. Internal pressures were coming from within every society that was looking for change because some wanted to change and some did not. Change was not easy to come by because people within these cultures were so used to the way things were before. Pressure to change multiplied when everyone started becoming nationalist. The Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh in 1919 became a leader of the Communist movement in Vietnam. When Ho Chi Minh was living in Paris after World War I he supported the October Revolution. Ho Chi Minh is almost clueless when it comes to communism when he is still living in France but respected Lenin because of his patriotism. The discussions were heated when it came to which international they wanted for the revolution. The third international was led by Lenin who at the time Ho Chi Minh knew little about until “a comrade gave me Lenin’s “Thesis on the national and colonial questions,” published by l’Humanite, to read.” Once Ho Chi Minh read the thesis he was infused with joy towards Lenin’s Third International. Lenin created internal pressure by making a thesis that would rile up people to make them want to turn towards communism. The reason Lenin created the Third International in 1919 was to promote a violent revolution. The Revolution in China was where Marxism had the most enormous impact. Young radicals founded the Chinese Communist party. The reason for the CCP was because of the revolution that failed in 1911. If political forces are weak or separated and cannot conjoin their power during a tough time the military normally will come and assist them. But in China’s case Yuan Shikai showed little to no comprehension of the change that China was foregoing. An external pressure was sweeping into China from the West although Yuan ruled in a traditional way, which led to clashes with Kuomintang or the nationalist party. The nationalists failed with their rebellion and the Sun fled to Japan. Emerging from all the chaos Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalist Party made an affiliation with the ruler of Guangdong. In regards to Yat-sen “All his life, all his influence, are devote to ideas which keep China in turmoil.” Yat-sen wanted to bring about change to China but was it in a good way? Change was very hard to come about in the late 19th and early 20th century. The fall of 1926 is a time when Communist and Nationalist forces moved onto their northern expedition attempting to defeat the warlords.
Mao Zedong came with the revolutionary troops into Hunan, which is his home. He speaks of a massive revolt, which cannot be stopped coming from his hometown. Internal pressure was given from the peasant’s revolt towards the gentry’s. When the gentry’s heard of this revolt it caused mayhem amongst them. The peasants and all other revolutionaries thought that this revolt was fine. The end of the Qing era led into the time of the early Chinese Republic. The industries changed when machines started to replace manual labor in a lot of industries. “Social changes followed shifts in the economy and the political culture.” The old system and intelligent young people were being attacked. Young people wanted to have to right to be with who they wanted to be with which ties into the Ba Jin family. Chinese social customs changed greatly especially when it came to universal suffrage and sexual discrimination. “Some progressives wanted free choice in marriage and divorce and even for free love.” Chueh-hsin was a young boy who was in love with his cousin Mei or as he called her plum blossom. When he got his diploma his Dad sat him down and told him that he had arranged a marriage for him. Breaking his heart this was a very cruel way for someone to be with someone that they would spend the rest of their lives with. But there was nothing that Chueh-hsin could do. The women’s movement externally is challenging universal suffrage and wants to end sexual discrimination. The word universal makes this an external pressure because they are pushing hard to end suffrage everywhere, not only in
China. A conflict erupted between Eastern and Western culture in the early twentieth-century. This conflict was in Japan and was through Nagai Kafu’s writings. Nagai loved French culture but did not like the Tokyo of his day. Kafu’s basically wanted to modernize Japan and did everything in his power to do so. He wrote Sneers to bash Tokyo life in 1909. He was concerned with the change that was happening in Japan and wanted to find some features that were still genuine. But no matter how much he hated the new Japan he still would say later in the passage that “I cannot help but feeling that, no matter how the external forms have changed, the natural features, the climate, and all the invisible things seem to harbor malice toward freedom of human wishes and the liberation of ideas.” He explains that no matter how much change that comes to Japan it still holds a quality that makes it beautiful in his eyes. The United States interfered with affairs that took place in Latin America in the first few decades of the 20th century. The U.S. only did this to protect citizens and its growing economic interests. Later in the 1920’s governments throughout the region grew a hate for them. Noticing this resentment from other governments Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed the Good Neighbor Policy. The U.S. decided that the best way to create peace was to set an example with themselves. This policy says that “the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and because he does so, respects the rights of others.” The United States dropped everything that made them look like they were interfering with foreign affairs. Europe was basically rebuilt and redrawn on the map after World War I. Europe’s role was pivotal in the fact that it rapidly increased population growth in the Western World. So much change came about in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nationalist movements were coming about, communism was attempting to spread, groups were fighting against laws they did not agree with. The external and internal pressures that were coming about would be hard to reduce unless these societies were stubborn when it came to changing. Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East were changing rapidly from a political, economic, and social standpoint.