DBQ: Effects of WWI on Colonized Peoples in Asia and Africa

Source: Sierra Leone Weekly, popular Sierra Leone newspaper focusing on the rights of colonial Africans, March 8th,1919

After Africa's sons had shed their blood on the altar of liberty and after having experienced that terrible plague called the influenza epidemic, are we not the same people? The South African Natives Congress has decided to send a delegation to England to place before the Imperial authorities the disabilities of which the coloured people complain. Liberia has asked for a place in the Peace Conference. What is Sierra Leone doing? We have been sleeping too long. It is high time we take up the world's work and cry - reconstruction!

Source: Article 22 of the Covenant of the Treaty of Versailles, ratified June 1919.

To those colonies and territories which, as a consequence of the late war, have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization and that securities of this trust should be embodied in this Covenant.

The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations who, by reason of their resources, their experience, or their geographical position can best undertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League.

Source: Amasya Circular, written by Turkish nationalist Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, declaring Turkey’s independence from the Ottoman imperial government, June 1919.

The integrity of our motherland and the independence of our nation are in grave danger, but the Istanbul government has not fulfilled its responsibilities. National independence will only be preserved by decided and resolute action on the part of the nation itself. With this objective, a national congress will be held in Sivas within the shortest period of time possible, to be attended by three representatives from each [sancak]. Before this, however, a regional congress will meet in Erzurum to organize the defense of eastern Anatolia.

Source: King George V of the United Kingdom, on the passage of the Government of India Act of 1919, which expanded participation of Indians in the government of India, December 1919.

The Acts of 1773 and 1784 were designed to establish a regular system of administration and justice under the Horrible East India Company. The Act of 1833 opened the door for Indians to public office and employment. The Act of 1858 transferred the administration from the Company to the Crown and laid the foundations of public life which exist in India to-day. The Act of 1861 sowed the seed of representative institutions, and the seed was quickened into life by the Act of 1909. The Act which has now become law entrusts the elected representative of the people with a definite share in the Government and points the way to full responsible Government hereafter.

Source: Jomo Kenyatta, Kenyan nationalist and freedom fighter, from his book Facing Mount Kenya, 1936.

The African is conditioned, by the cultural and social institutions of centuries, to a freedom of which Europe has little conception, and it is not in his nature to accept serfdom forever. He realizes that he must fight unceasingly for his own complete emancipation; for without this he is doomed to remain the prey of rival imperialisms, which in every successive year will drive their fangs more deeply into his vitality and strength.

Source: Mohandas Gandhi, Indian nationalist and independence supporter, in an open letter to Englishmen living in India, 1920.

No Indian has cooperated with the British Government more than I have for an unbroken period of twenty-nine years of public life in the face of circumstances that might well have turned any other man into a rebel. I did all this in the full belief that acts such as mine must gain my country an equal status in the Empire. But the treachery of [Parliament] has completely shattered my faith in the good intentions of the Government and the nation which is supporting it. You are in search of a remedy to suppress this rising ebullition of national feeling. I venture to suggest to you that the only way to suppress it is to remove the causes. You have yet the power. You can repent of the wrongs done to Indians. You can compel the government to summon a conference of the recognized leaders of the people elected by them and representing all shades of opinion.