Chapter 27 Chapter 21 Nationalist Revolts in the Colonial World (Part 1)

After World War I, there was a wave of revolution in the colonies.Although the roots of these revolutions can be traced back to the years before 1914, it was the war itself that directly fueled the revolutions.The end result varied: the Turks at one end achieved most of their proposed goals, the Rif tribesmen at the other suffered disastrous defeats, and the Egyptians, Iraqis, Indians and other races in between Moderate concessions on the constitution were obtained.In retrospect, these uprisings were the prelude to the upheavals that ultimately destroyed European empires in the two decades following World War II.

Of all the colonial uprisings against European rule that followed World War I, the Turks' uprising was the most spectacular and successful.They suffered a crushing defeat during the Great War and were then forced to accept a humiliating armistice and peace treaty.However, they quickly reversed the situation, defeating their enemies in armed conflict and winning a new treaty with more favorable terms.Of all the Allies, therefore, only primitive and despised Turkey was capable of rebelling against the victorious Entente and forcing them to accept the amendments to the peace treaty.To understand this extraordinary outcome, it is necessary to recall the complex diplomacy concerning the Ottoman Empire during the war.

Britain was the main behind-the-scenes initiator of much of the diplomacy concerning the Middle East during the years of the war.It was responsible for three sets of often conflicting pacts—with its allies, with Arab proxies, and with the Zionists. There were four treaties between the Allies, all of which were secret treaties in preparation for the partition of the Ottoman Empire.The first treaty was the Agreement of Constantinople, which consisted of five weeks of diplomatic transactions between Russia, Britain and France in March and April 1915.The Western powers grudgingly agreed that, if victorious, Russia would annex Constantinople, the Turkish Straits, and the vast hinterland on either side of it.In exchange, Britain and France stipulated that they would clarify their respective requirements for Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Ottoman Empire in the future.A few weeks later, on April 26, 1915, in order to make Italy an Allied Power, the three Allied Powers, Britain, France, and Russia, signed the secret "London Treaty" with Italy.According to the treaty, in addition to the territory of the Alps and the coast of Dalmatia, Italy will also get Adalia, a province in the southwestern part of Asia Minor, and will also gain full sovereignty over the Dodecanese Islands; Italy in 1911-1912 The Italian-Turkish War Lizhong has occupied the archipelago.

The most influential of these secret treaties—the Sykes-Picot Agreement of April 26, 1916—articulated all the demands of Britain, France, and Russia.Russia would get Constantinople and the Turkish Straits promised to her, as well as Armenia, parts of Kurdistan and northern Anatolia.Britain would gain the Mesopotamian and Mediterranean ports of Haifa and Acre.France's sphere of influence would include Syrian territory north of Tyre, the province of Adana and the Silesia region in southwestern Anatolia.Finally, Palestine, west of the Jordan River, from Gaza to Tire, is to be placed under international administration because it is home to the Holy Land.

When the Italians learned of the Sykes-Picot arrangements, they expanded their demands and insisted on diplomatic approval.These demands were met by the "Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne" signed in April 1917 by Britain, France, and Italy; according to this treaty, Italy, in addition to the province of Adalia already assigned to it, It would also gain most of the west coast of Asia Minor. These secret treaties were execution orders against the Ottoman Empire.They cut off not only some of the provinces of Arabia, but most of the peninsula of Asia Minor.Excluding the spheres of influence of France, Italy, and Russia, the Turks were left with only 20,000 square miles in the north of their homeland.What's more, these secret treaties were in direct conflict with some of the treaties Britain was making with Arab proxies at the time.

Even before the outbreak of World War I, Britain had taken an interest in the Arabs, seeing them as a counterweight to the Turks, who were then drawing closer to Germany.Certain Arab blocs have undoubtedly received attention, not least because of Young Turk's policy of Turkification (see Chapter XIV, Section 3).The chief dignitary among the Arabs was Emir Hussein of the Hashemite family, protector of the Holy Land and king of Mecca.As early as 1914, when Hussein's second son Abdullah passed through Cairo, he had sounded the British about possible British assistance for the Arab uprising against the Turks. The British eagerly resumed these contacts as soon as Turkey joined the Allies in November 1914.Hussein's protracted negotiations with Sir Henry McMahon, the British high commissioner in Egypt, culminated in a military alliance and an ambiguous political agreement that caused numerous troubles in the years to come.In return for the Arab rebellion against the Turks, the British agreed to recognize the independence of the Arab states south of the 37th parallel, including the Arabian Peninsula.In a long exchange of letters between July 1915 and March 1916, McMahon insisted that the agreement be conditional on not violating unspecified French interests in Syria.Hussein replied that he would never agree that any Arab country should be colonized by any powerful country, namely France.To avoid delaying the Arab uprising, this contentious issue was left unresolved, with unfortunate results a few years later.

At the same time that the British Foreign Office was negotiating with Hussein, the Indian Ministry was negotiating with the Sultan Ibn Saud of Naqin; the Saudi territory was closer to the Persian Gulf. On 26 December 1915, an agreement was reached between the two parties, whereby the Ministry of India recognized the independence of Ibn Saud in return for his amicable neutrality in the war.The involvement of another British government agency did not change the fact that Britain had made conflicting promises to Ibn Saud and Hussein. Another conflicting promise, made to Lord Rothschild of the World Zionist Organization, is more ominous for the future.Zionism is a nationalist movement that developed among European Jews as early as the last quarter of the 19th century as a resistance to growing anti-Semitism.The World Zionist Organization, founded in Basel in 1897, had repeatedly appealed to the Ottoman government to allow them to establish a community of Jewish residents in Palestine.At that time, the Turks, already beset by the demands of the nationalists of various countries, rejected the Zionist demands.In turn, the Zionists rejected the British proposal to establish a settlement in Uganda, as Zionism without Mount Zion was unthinkable.

With Turkey's involvement in World War I, Zionist leaders in Britain and the United States took the opportunity to ask the Entente to allow them to establish a Jewish state in Palestine as the Ottoman Empire fell.As a result of political pressure for this purpose, the Zionists gradually won the support of key leaders of the British government for their claims.The desire of key leaders of the British government to win the support of many influential Zionist organizations in Russia and the United States for the Allied cause also affected their position to some extent.In addition, they feared that Germany and Turkey would be willing to make concessions to win the support of international Zionists; this fear was somewhat justified.So far, on 2 November 1917, Lord Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild, declaring that the British government favored a "Jewish homeland in Palestine...but it goes without saying that nothing could be done to the detriment of Palestine. matters of civil and religious rights in the existing non-Jewish societies. . . . " It is clear that this Balfour Declaration, along with the Sykes-Picot and Hussein-McMahon Agreements, are Conflicting.

Given this mass of contradictions, it is not surprising that the mediators did not make any permanent decisions on the Middle East in Paris.In the end, it was Britain and France that decided the solution, as America was retreating into isolation, Russia was thrown into disarray by civil war and foreign interference, and Italy was held back by internal strife.The Treaty of Sèvres (August 10, 1920) was thus essentially Anglo-French, and its terms reflected this.France got the Syrian mandate, while Britain got Mesopotamia and Palestine in addition to the protectorate of Egypt.Italy received the Dodecanese Islands, and Greece, thanks to the ingenious diplomacy of Prime Minister Venizelos, received five years of jurisdiction over several islands in the Aegean Sea, East Thrace, and Smyrna; five years later , the final disposition of the Smyrna area will be determined by referendum.The independence of Armenia and the Kingdom of Hijaz is recognized.In the end, the Soviet Union did not get Constantinople and the Turkish Straits because of the armed conflict with the intervening forces of the Entente and because of the announcement and denial of the secret treaty signed by the Tsar's ministers.Conversely, the strategically important site of Constantinople is under Turkish sovereignty, although the Turkish Straits will be demilitarized and placed under international control.

These terms, diametrically opposed to the promises made to the Arabs in the past, and to the principle of self-determination professed by the Entente, gave rise to waves of armed resistance throughout the Middle East.A combination of factors allowed the Turks to abolish the Treaty of Sèvres altogether, while the Arabs won one concession after another after years of tenacious struggle. The George Washington of modern Turkey was Mustafa Kemal, later known as the "Father of Turkey".He became famous for his successful defense of the Dardanelles in the war, but his fame did not reach its peak at this time, because he was at odds with the Young Turks who had already drawn Turkey into the war.Kemal's opportunity came after the armistice, when he spearheaded opposition to the Treaty of Sevres.He was perfectly happy to give up the Arabian provinces of the old empire, but refused to cede Eastern Thrace, and refused to accept the terms concerning Constantinople and the Turkish Straits.Moreover, the victorious Allies had further divided Asia Minor into spheres of influence, and the remaining Turkey seemed destined to suffer a fate similar to that of China.

Kemal's bold nationalist ideas aroused the resentment of Constantinople, so he was sent to the east of Asia Minor to demobilize the army.There he was safe from the muzzle of the Allied fleet anchored near Constantinople.He traveled throughout the interior of Turkey, organizing resistance against the Entente and its puppet sultan in the capital.By September 1919, Kemal had convened a Nationalist Congress; the Congress adopted a "National Pact" consisting of six principles.These principles included self-determination, the abrogation of surrender treaties, the defense of Constantinople, and the creation of a new Straits settlement.In the October 1919 elections, Kemal's supporters won a majority; the January 1920 parliament accepted the National Pact.The Entente retaliated by occupying Constantinople on March 16 to prevent the spread of the nationalist movement.At this point, Kemal made a final break, summoning his nationalist representatives to Ankara in central Asia Minor. On April 23, 1920, they announced the abolition of the Sudanese regime and established a provisional government with Kemal as the president. The nationalists triumphed over what appeared to be an unstoppable opponent.One reason is Kemal's courageous and inspired leadership.Another reason was the fact that the great mass of the Turkish people, the faithful, was united as never before by the atrocities of the Entente at Constantinople, and above all by the landing of Greek troops at Smyrna in the spring of 1919.The last reason is that Kemal took advantage of the serious differences between the Entente powers to conclude separate treaties with them, thereby isolating the Greeks in Smyrna and paving the way for their defeat.The discord among the Entente powers arose from the fact that both the French and the Italians had good reason to believe that the British, and the Greeks under their protection, received the vast majority of the spoils of the Middle East.The Italians therefore voluntarily concluded a treaty on March 13, 1921, whereby, in return for certain economic concessions in southeastern Asia Minor, the Italians agreed to withdraw their troops from the area and diplomatically Supports the Turks in their efforts to retake Smyrna and Eastern Thrace.The French quickly followed suit with the Italians. On October 20, 1921, they signed an agreement with the Turks that defined the border between Syria and Turkey and settled various disputes over railways and other economic matters. At that time, the Turks were still negotiating with the Russians.These old enemies were all at war with Britain at this time, and they were close to each other. On March 16, 1921, they signed a treaty that established the Caucasus Mountains as their common border, after which the Russians aided the Turkish nationalists with arms and money. This series of treaties fundamentally changed the balance of power in the Middle East.By this time, Turkey and Russia had formed a united front, and the Entente had fallen apart, with only Britain and Greece still holding on to the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres.England, because of her world-wide promises and the state of public opinion at home, could only keep her fleet at Constantinople and the Turkish Straits.In other words, at this time only the Greeks were left alone in Smyrna to face the upsurge of Turkish nationalism in Asia Minor. At the end of March 1921, war broke out between the Greeks and the Turks.At first the resistance the Greeks encountered was weak as it was nothing more than partisan resistance.But the further they advanced, the more tenacious this resistance became, and the hostility of the local population was such that Greece had to mobilize fully two-thirds of its manpower to guard the transport lines.The turning point in the battle came when the invaders reached the Sakarya River in the heart of Asia Minor.Kemal launched a counterattack, and the overstretched Greeks were completely stopped and pushed back.The retreat demoralized the Greeks and eventually led to a total collapse. On September 9, 1922, Kemal rode victoriously into Smyrna.Not only the Greek army, but even the Greek civilians who had lived in the Smyrna area for hundreds of years were forced to retreat. At this time, Kemal was able to demand amendments to the Treaty of Sevres.After long negotiations, the Lausanne Peace Treaty was signed on July 24, 1923.The peace treaty returned Eastern Thrace and several islands in the Aegean to Turkey.In addition, Turkey did not have to pay any compensation, and all the terms of the surrender treaty were abolished; in return, Turkey promised to carry out judicial reform.The strait remains a demilitarized zone, open to ships from all countries in peacetime or in wartime when Turkey remains neutral.If Turkey enters the war, enemy ships will not be allowed to pass, but neutral ships will still be allowed to pass.Finally, a separate agreement provided for the forcible exchange of the Greek minorities of Constantinople for the Turkish minorities of Western Thrace and Macedonia. The "Lausanne Peace Treaty" means Kemal's personal great success.After 500 years of ups and downs, the decaying Ottoman Empire finally fell. On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey with Kemal as president was formally proclaimed.After creating a new Turkey, Kemal devoted himself to the equally difficult task of creating a new Turk. In 1921, he offered his guiding principles in the struggle for existence: According to these views, Kemal ruthlessly removed the antiquated institutions of the past.One reform after another was carried out in the great torrent of change. By the time of Kemal's death on November 10, 1938, the new Turkey had been established.Admittedly, this "new" has only breadth and no depth.Farmers make up the vast majority of the population, most of whom still cling to their ancient Muslim ideas and habits.On the other hand, the new luminaries who ruled the country were Europeanized in their way of life and way of thinking.Many peasants have also changed dramatically, developing friendly relations with the government that have not been enjoyed in centuries past.Turkey has become the "modern state" designed by Kemal to a much greater extent than other Muslim countries. While the Turks were successfully tearing up the Treaty of Sèvres, the Arabs were staunchly resisting the mandates assigned to them.Contrary to the Hussein-McMahon Agreement, Syria-Lebanon had been assigned to France as a Mandate, Mesopotamia and Palestine had become British Mandates, and Egypt had come under full British control.This outrageous partition of the Arab country was bound to lead to turmoil, for the war itself had aroused strong national feelings among the Arabs.The Entente's self-determination propaganda had inevitably had an impact on Arab opinion.The successful operations of the Arab armies also aroused national consciousness and national pride.Arab soldiers fought alongside the British in the battles to liberate Damascus, Aleppo and other historic centers of Arabia.Equally important was the widespread misery and widespread starvation caused by the breakdown of wartime trade.It is estimated that at least 300,000 people died of starvation or diseases caused by malnutrition. Finally, there is the most important religious factor, especially for village farmers. In the 1950s, an Egyptian sociologist concluded after direct investigation that "for the villagers, the world was divided into believers and non-believers according to the beliefs of the Muslims," ​​and that "they knew little about things like race or class." concept.” In the years immediately following the First World War there were no doubt many more expressions of this kind of opinion surrounding religion.This is also evidenced by the fact that Arab nationalist leaders in the cities had little previous contact with the peasants, who were often surprised by how much they supported them.It concluded that the village uprisings were spontaneous movements fueled by religious sentiments against foreign pagan rulers. The combination of the above factors explains the Arab struggle for independence after the war.It can be seen that there is a common pattern in the development of this struggle.First, revolts and armed uprisings broke out in the years immediately after the peace treaty was signed.Then England and France gradually restored order and reasserted their powers.Finally, they allowed for varying degrees of autonomy; this did not entirely satisfy the nationalists, but it did maintain an uneasy peace until the Second World War. Strictly speaking, in Egypt, the commission relationship does not exist.But the situation is basically similar to that of the Arab countries, because Britain denied the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the war and declared Egypt a British protectorate.The nationalist Waft party immediately organized a violent resistance. In 1922, Britain declared Egypt an "independent sovereign state," but reserved for itself the power not only to protect minorities and foreign interests, but also to control foreign affairs and external security.Nationalists rejected this illusory independence and continued the struggle.One of their means of fighting was terrorism, and in 1924 they succeeded in assassinating Sir Lee Stark, the British head of the Egyptian army.These nationalists also rely on popular support, as his numerous electoral victories show.In the end, Britain and Egypt reached a conciliatory settlement in 1936, signing a 20-year treaty of alliance in which Britain promised to end its military occupation of the country and place Egypt in the League of Nations.In return, Egypt agreed to support Britain during the war and promised the British garrison to station the Suez Canal. In addition, Egypt continued to implement the joint management of Sudan by Anglo-Egypt.The nationalist leaders were not at all content with this kind of reconciliation.But they accepted it, thinking it was the best that the circumstances could have given them, and they waited for the first opportunity to clear away the loathsome remnants of foreign control. The nationalist resistance movement in Iraq has gone through much the same process as Egypt. In 1920, armed uprisings broke out throughout the country.Britain first restored order and then attempted to win over the nationalists by making Hussein's third son, Prince Faisal, king.The following year, 1922, Britain negotiated a treaty of alliance in which they retained those controls they deemed necessary to protect their interests.Still dissatisfied, the nationalists continued to riot.Finally, a Treaty of Alliance was concluded in 1930, by which Britain agreed to end the Mandate and back Iraq's request to join the League of Nations.In return, Iraq agreed to the British maintaining three air bases in the country and full use of railways, rivers or ports in time of war. In 1932, Iraq became a member of the League of Nations, becoming the first Arab country to receive this honor.As for Egypt, the nationalist bloc is still not satisfied.They claimed that only the appearance had changed, since Britain retained all the privileges it wished to preserve by the expedient means of a covenant. In Syria and Lebanon, France has been less flexible and therefore less successful than Britain.Nationalist revolts occurred from time to time, the most serious in 1925, when France had to bombard Damascus to maintain control of it.Finally, in 1936, the French government negotiated separate treaties with Syria and Lebanon, modeled on the Anglo-Iranian treaty of 1930.However, none of these treaties had been ratified by the French lower house, so the conflict remained unresolved by the outbreak of World War II. The situation was unique in Palestine, as the situation there quickly degenerated into a three-way bitter struggle between the British, the Arabs and the Jews.The Arabs insisted that the Balfour Declaration on a Jewish "national home" was a blatant breach of previous promises McMahon had made to the Arabs in his letters.Britain attempted to appease the Arabs by ceding the interior of Palestine in 1921 to form the independent state of Transjordan.This dispenses with all escrow clauses regarding the establishment of Jewish homes.In addition, the British appointed Faisal's brother Abdullah as ruler of Transjordan.This strategy has been extremely satisfactory for Foreign Jordan.Abdullah remained loyal to his cooperation with the British, not least because the poverty of his country made him dependent on financial assistance from London.Perhaps the most powerful army in the Arab world was the Arab Legion in Transjordan, financed by British funds and commanded by British General John Grubbs. In real Palestine, however, this tripartite conflict intensified with the influx of Jewish immigrants and the fearful Arab pushback against the Jews and the British.Article VI of the Trusteeship Articles required Britain to "facilitate" the emigration of Jews and "encourage the clandestine settlement of Jews in the area." However, the same article also stipulated that "the rights and status of several other sections of the population" would be protected.Apparently, the British thought that these two provisions were not necessarily contradictory.They expected that Jewish migration would never reach such a level as to violate the "rights and status" of Arabs.They failed to foresee the impact that Hitler's rise to power in 1933 would have.Jewish immigration jumped from 9,553 in 1932 to 30,327 in 1933, 42,359 in 1934, and 61,854 in 1935.The total number of Palestinian Jews rose from 65,000 in 1919 to 450,000 in 1939. As long as the influx of Jews remained modest, there was no strong opposition from the Arabs.In fact, they had welcomed wealthy, driven, and skilled Jews.They themselves had earlier benefited greatly from the miracles performed by the Jews in restoring depleted land, establishing industry, and controlling disease.But the Arabs, understandably, fought back fiercely when the migrated creek turned into a torrent.As one Arab put it with horror and bewilderment: "I don't know their language; I don't know their customs; they make me feel like a foreigner in my own country." Other Arabs point out that they have no reason to lose their country to Western anti-Semitism. "Anti-Semitism is a deplorable disease of the West. . . . We are not anti-Semites; we are Jews. Yet this problem in the West is being addressed today at our expense. Do you think that Is it fair?" Arab attacks on Jews became more frequent and more violent.The most important of these were the Wailing Wall riots in 1929, the Arab "National Political General Strike" in 1936 and the Arab uprising in 1938.The British response was to send a Royal Commission of Inquiry after these riots.By the time of World War II, the situation had been investigated by several commissions of inquiry in an attempt to satisfy three distinct and conflicting interests—the wishes of the Zionists, the nationalist demands of the Arabs, and the interests of the British Empire , so their recommendations vacillate.For example, the May 1939 White Paper proposed that Palestine be an independent state within 10 years and proposed explicit restrictions on Jewish migration and land purchases.The last paragraph of the White Paper contains this philosophical insight: "His Majesty's Government cannot hope to satisfy the partisans of one party or the other in this controversy arising out of the Trusteeship." This insight proves that It makes perfect sense.Both Arabs and Jews rejected the British proposals, and the Palestine dispute was far from settled even by the outbreak of World War II. During the nineteenth century, the area west of Egypt, the so-called Maghreb, came under European rule (see Chapter 14, Section 3). In 1830, France began to invade Algeria; in 1911, Italy completed its invasion of Libya.The Italian invasion was met with stubborn resistance, which lasted until after the war and was the beginning of a general struggle for liberation in the Maghreb. In Libya in 1911, the Italians defeated a small Turkish garrison with little difficulty.However, the local Arabs and Berbers continued to fight with weapons left by the evacuating Turks.The Senusi Order organized and led the resistance so effectively that by the summer of 1915 the Italians were confined to six strongholds along the coast.After World War I, the Italians tried again, with little success, to impose their power over Libya.They occupied only the coastal areas, while most of the interior remained under Arab control. The defeat of the Italians in Libya was a serious blow to European prestige.However, it was quickly dwarfed by a stunning defeat to the Spaniards by the Rif Mountaineers in Morocco.For centuries, Spain's possessions in Morocco were limited to four tiny enclaves along the Mediterranean coast.By this time, France had expanded from Algeria, established a protectorate in Tunisia in 1881, and began occupying Morocco after the Conference of Algeciras in 1906.This prompted the Spaniards to do the same, and they struck a deal with France to carve up Morocco and began pushing inland in 1909.Their advance was so slow that they met little resistance for several years.Then, in the summer of 1921, they suffered a sudden and disastrous defeat—the worst defeat suffered by a Western army since the Ethiopian defeat of the Italians at Adova in 1896. It was Abdul Kerim, leader of the Rif tribe, who dealt this unexpected blow.He was well educated in Spain, so he understood the value of Western technology and knew how to use it.The frightened Spaniards continued to pour into Morocco, amounting to 150,000 people, but failed to recover most of the area. In the summer of 1923 they proposed autonomy for the Krem, but Krem, elated by the victory, demanded complete independence.By 1924, the Spaniards were again confined to the coast, with only a few forts in the interior, and these were usually surrounded by the Rifles.In fact, Kerim at this time has become the master of the entire Spanish Morocco. The following year Kerim challenged not just the Spaniard but the French - a move that directly led to his demise.This blunder arose partly from his need for some grain-producing areas behind the French lines and partly from his miscalculation of the political situation in France.He overestimated the extent of war weariness among the French and was overly impressed by the support promised by the French Communist Party. On September 20, 1924, the leader of the French Communist Party, Jacques Doriot, called Kerim to congratulate him on his victory over the Spaniards and expressed the hope that "he would link up with the proletariat of France and Europe, and with all empires, including French imperialism." struggle until the complete liberation of the Moroccan territories." Doriot was undoubtedly sincere in expressing his good wishes, but he could not support them with effective assistance. On April 13, 1925, Kerim began his offensive before French reinforcements could arrive.The Rif warriors pushed through the French lines and roused some tribes in the interior.The French forts, cut off from the bases, had to be dismantled one by one.Total defeat was avoided only by the loyalty of the French regular army and the non-French who made up the vast majority of the Foreign Legion.The situation was so critical that Spain and France concluded an alliance and decided to take joint action against the Rif, which included blockading the territory of the Rif by land and water to prevent arms smuggling.However, Kerim's initial attack failed to win, which meant the beginning of his demise.The combined resources of France and Spain were so overwhelming that Rive's eventual defeat was inevitable. By the autumn of 1925, the 60,000 livre army faced the 280,000 Franco-Spanish allied forces.The disparity in power was simply too great, especially since Kerim's unsuccessful general uprising in the French rear.In winter and spring, Kerim suffered a series of defeats until he announced his surrender on May 27, 1926.He was exiled to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.Kerim failed to drive out the French, but his exploits roused the whole of the Magbris, galvanizing the nationalist parties founded in the Beetles; Fight for freedom.