How did nationalism shape political developments in East and Southeast Asia?

Because of the efforts of the Meiji reformers, nationalism and modernization were well developed in Japan by 1914 (see “The Meiji Restoration” in Chapter 26). Japan competed politically and economically with the world’s leading nations, building its own empire and proclaiming its special mission in Asia. Initially China lagged behind, but after 1912 the pace of nationalist development began to quicken.

In the 1920s the Chinese nationalist movement managed to reduce the power and influence both of the warlords who controlled large territories in the interior and of the imperialist West, by weakening the effects of the “unequal treaties” (see “The Opium War” in Chapter 26) and promoting extensive modernization. These achievements were soon undermined, however, by an internal civil war followed by war with an expanding Japan. Nationalism also flourished elsewhere in Asia, scoring a major victory in the Philippines.