Introduction to the Documents, Chapter 29

Though the First World War is often cast as a European conflict, it reflected and exacerbated tensions throughout the world. The global network of empires and colonies that had formed by the turn of the century drew Asian peoples into the conflict, and the rhetoric of freedom and democracy mobilized during the war inspired nationalist sentiments in many contexts. For some in Asia, the war was an opportunity to fight for national sovereignty against imperial control. For others, the war created an opportunity to link their own popular nationalist causes with the stated goals of the victors. For Asians, the material and human cost of the war and the ensuing geopolitical reorganization was manifest in new ways of thinking about national identity. The documents in this chapter present a range of personal and political views on nations and national identity in Asia, exploring the complex mix of fear, hope, disappointment, and resolve of Asians who sought to build national identities out of the chaos of the early twentieth century.