Israel's Dimona Nuclear Weapons Factory In 3D
Cf. Vanunu is an Israeli former nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad spy, where he was drugged and kidnapped by Israeli intelligence operatives. He was transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors.
Obama Administration Denies Visas to Israeli Nuclear Scientists
Ch. 17 Sec. 1 Quiz is on Thursday. Be sure to consider the Quiz Prep Page.
Ch. 17 Sec. 2 Quiz is on Monday. Be sure to consider the Quiz Prep Page.
Chapter 18: Nationalism Around the World, 1919–1939
Nationalism was a major force in the Middle East, Africa, and India after World War I. In China, the Nationalists forced the Communists into retreat and formed a republic. An expansionist military took power in Japan. Economic crisis led to military dictatorships throughout Latin America.
Section 1 Nationalism in the Middle East
World War I was the final blow for an Ottoman Empire in its decline since the late eighteenth century. One of its final acts was an act of genocide, the slaughter of Armenians seeking independence. Nationalist leaders in the collapsing empire established the independent states of Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Britain and France withdrew their promised support for Arab nationalists and set up British mandates in Iraq and Jordan, and French mandates in Lebanon and Syria. Saudi Arabia had vast supplies of newly discovered oil and suddenly attracted Western oil companies that would bring the kingdom untold wealth. Palestine became a site of conflict beginning with the British Balfour Declaration of 1917, which declared Palestine the site for a Jewish homeland. Tensions between Jews and Muslims only worsened as Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazi persecution flooded Palestine.
Section 2 Nationalism in Africa and Asia
After World War I, Germany lost its African colonies to Britain and France. Violent suppression and the slow pace of reform in the colonies led many Africans to agitate for independence. Two African Americans, W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, were influential in building African cultural awareness and Pan-African unity. Mohandas Gandhi built a large movement for Indian independence through nonviolence. Indian Muslims felt sidelined by the largest independence organization, the Indian National Congress, and called for a separate Muslim state. Rapid industrialization in Japan led to support for territorial expansion to improve Japan's access to raw materials and markets. After a period of pacifism prompted in part by pressure from the United States, Japan conquered Manchuria, and the military took control of the government. The Communist International helped build Communist parties in China and Southeast Asia.
Section 3 Revolutionary Chaos in China
As central authority collapsed in China, rival Nationalist and Communist Party forces briefly joined ranks. The two groups split after a Nationalist massacre of Communists. The Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, founded a new Chinese republic in 1928. The Communists, led by Mao Zedong, went into hiding in the cities. Mao's plans, however, were for a revolution led by peasants. In 1933 Mao's forces used guerrilla tactics to break through Nationalist lines closing in on them. They then began the Long March to the last surviving Communist base. Chiang had plans for land reform and a Western-style constitutional government. To make Western ideas palatable, he blended them with Confucian themes. Although he did achieve some meaningful reforms, Chiang's support came mainly from the rural gentry and the urban middle class; his reforms did little to redistribute wealth.
Section 4 Nationalism in Latin America
American investors directly controlled many Latin American industries beginning in the 1920s. Latin American nationalists claimed that U.S. investments propped up the regions' dictators. The Great Depression weakened regional economies and led to the creation of government-run industries, since Latin Americans could not afford many imported goods. Economic crisis and instability prompted military leaders to overthrow the elected governments—which were dominated by small elites—and to establish authoritarian regimes. Dictators sometimes gained an urban following by promising better factory conditions. Industrialization became a core government project. Fascist symbols and nationalist slogans were used amid harsh political repression. In Mexico, a single-party state dominated society. The popular Depression-era leader Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized foreign-owned oil companies and redistributed land to Mexican peasants. Artists helped build national identity in many Latin American countries.
Gandhi's March to the Sea
Identify Causes and Effects
Recognizing causes and effects can help you understand the significance of certain events. In a chart like the one below, record the causes and effects of Gandhi’s leadership of India’s independence movement.
On March 12, 1930, Gandhi set out with 78 followers on a 240-mile march to the sea. As the tiny band passed through villages, crowds responded to Gandhi’s message. By the time they reached the sea, the marchers numbered in the thousands. On April 6, Gandhi waded into the surf and picked up a lump of sea salt. He was soon arrested and jailed. Still, Indians followed his lead. Coastal villages started collecting salt. Indians sold salt on city streets. As Gandhi’s campaign gained force, tens of thousands of Indians were imprisoned.
All around the world, newspapers criticized Britain’s harsh reaction to the protests. Stories revealed how police brutally clubbed peaceful marchers who tried to occupy a government salt works. Slowly, Gandhi’s campaign forced Britain to hand over some power to Indians. Britain also agreed to meet other demands of the Congress party.
Cf.
Mohandas Gandhi: Hind Swaraj
Section 1 Nationalism in the Middle East
Section 1 Nationalism in the Middle East
World War I was the final blow for an Ottoman Empire in its decline since the late eighteenth century. One of its final acts was an act of genocide, the slaughter of Armenians seeking independence. Nationalist leaders in the collapsing empire established the independent states of Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Britain and France withdrew their promised support for Arab nationalists and set up British mandates in Iraq and Jordan, and French mandates in Lebanon and Syria. Saudi Arabia had vast supplies of newly discovered oil and suddenly attracted Western oil companies that would bring the kingdom untold wealth. Palestine became a site of conflict beginning with the British Balfour Declaration of 1917, which declared Palestine the site for a Jewish homeland. Tensions between Jews and Muslims only worsened as Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazi persecution flooded Palestine.
Note Taking
Reading and Listening Skill: Identify Causes and Effects
Record reasons for the rise of nationalism in Africa and the Middle East and its effects in a chart like the one below.
Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire
Impact of World War I
Nationalist movements brought immense changes to the Middle East in the aftermath of World War I. The defeated Ottoman empire was near collapse in 1918. Its Arab lands, as you may have read, were divided between Britain and France. However, in Asia Minor, the Turkish peninsula between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, Turks resisted Western control and fought to build a modern nation.
Massacre of the Armenians
"1915 Armenian genocide" resolution approved, 2:51
The U.S. House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee has passed a resolution recognizing the 1915 Armenian massacre as genocide. The Turkish President says the decision is unacceptable and is not regarded by the Turkish people as of any value.
Emergence of the Turkish Republic
In 1920, the Ottoman sultan reluctantly signed the Treaty of Sèvres, in which the empire lost its Arab and North African lands. The sultan also had to give up some land in Asia Minor to a number of Allied countries, including Greece. A Greek force landed in the city of Smyrna (now Izmir) to assert Greece’s claims. Turkish nationalists, led by the determined and energetic Mustafa Kemal, overthrew the sultan, defeated the Greeks, and declared Turkey a republic. Kemal negotiated a new treaty. Among other provisions, the treaty called for about 1.3 million Greeks to leave Turkey, while some 400,000 Turks left Greece.
Biography
Atatürk (1881–1938)
President Kennedy - Speech about Ataturk, 1:56
“Atatürk” is the name that Mustafa Kemal gave himself when he ordered all Turkish people to take on surnames, or last names. It means “Father of the Turks.” In 1920, he led Turkish nationalists in the fight against Greek forces trying to enforce the Treaty of Sèvres, establishing the borders of the modern Republic of Turkey. Once in power, he passed many reforms to modernize, Westernize, and secularize Turkey. Atatürk is still honored throughout Turkey today—his portrait appears on postage and all currency. Why is Atatürk considered the “Father of the Turks”?
Reading Check
Evaluating
How did the Ottoman Empire finally end?
The Modernization of Turkey
Atatürk’s Reforms in Turkey
*Replaced Islamic law with European model
*Replaced Muslim calendar with Western (Christian) calendar
*Moved day of rest from Friday to Sunday
*Closed religious schools and opened state schools
*Forced people to wear Western-style clothes
*Replaced Arabic alphabet with Latin alphabet
*Gave women the right to vote and to work outside the home.
Westernization Transforms Turkey
Atatürk’s government encouraged industrial expansion. The government built railroads, set up factories, and hired westerners to advise on how to make Turkey economically independent.
To achieve his reforms, Atatürk ruled with an iron hand. To many Turks, he was a hero who was transforming Turkey into a strong, modern power. Others questioned Atatürk’s dictatorial powers and complete rejection of religion in laws and government. They believed that Islam could play a constructive role in a modern, civil state.
In 1924, Atatürk, as part of his reforms, constitutionally abolished the institution of the Caliphate. The title was then taken up by King Hussein bin Ali of Hejaz, leader of the Arab Revolt, but his kingdom was defeated and annexed by Ibn Saud in 1925. The title has since been inactive.
A summit was convened at Cairo in 1926 to discuss the revival of the Caliphate, but most Muslim countries did not participate and no action was taken to implement the summit's resolutions.
Though the title was adopted by the King of Morocco and by Mullah Mohammed Omar, former head of the now-defunct Taliban regime of Afghanistan, neither claimed any legal standing or authority over Muslims outside the borders of their respective countries.
The closest thing to a Caliphate in existence today is the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an international organization with influence founded in 1969 consisting of the governments of most Muslim-majority countries. In fact, the "OIC Fulfills Function of Caliphate, Embodies ‘Islamic Solidarity,’ Says OIC Chief, according to a recent news story.
Rashad Hussain is the current American representative to the OIC.
In 2004, Hussain was on a panel discussion on civil rights at a Muslim Students Association conference in Chicago. With him on the panel was Laila Al-Arian, a daughter of Sami Al-Arian, who on March 2, 2006, entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization, and was sentenced to 57 months in prison, and ordered deported following his prison term. During the panel discussion, and following Laila Al-Arain's comments, Hussain made critical statements about the U.S. terror prosecution of Sami Al-Arian, as well as other Muslim terrorism suspects, characterizing them as "politically motivated persecutions."
Hussain later acknowledged that he was accurately quoted in 2004 as calling the treatment of Sami al-Arian as an example of “politically motivated persecutions.” Hussain made the admission after Politico acquired an audio recording of the Muslim Students Association event, and his comments. Hussain stated that he "made statements on that panel that I now recognize were ill-conceived or not well-formulated." Earlier, Hussain – through White House spokesmen – said he could not recall having made the statements." After Hussain's statement, the White House stated that it "is expressing its confidence in Hussain, despite his concession last week that he made ill-considered statements in 2004 about Bush-era terrorism prosecutions."
Reading Check
Identifying
What radical step did Ataturk Take to modernize Turkey?
The Beginnings of Modern Iran
The success of Atatürk’s reforms inspired nationalists in neighboring Persia (present-day Iran). Persian nationalists greatly resented the British and Russians, who had won spheres of influence over Persia in 1907. In 1925, an ambitious army officer, Reza Khan, overthrew the shah. He set up his own dynasty, with himself as shah.
Like Atatürk, Reza Khan rushed to modernize Persia and make it fully independent. He built factories, roads, and railroads and strengthened the army. He forced Persians to wear Western clothing and set up modern, secular schools. In addition, he moved to replace Islamic law with secular law and encouraged women to take part in public life. Muslim religious leaders fiercely condemned Reza Khan’s efforts to introduce Western ways to the nation.
Reza Khan also persuaded the British company that controlled Persia’s oil industry to give Persia a larger share of the profits and insisted that Persian workers be hired at all levels of the company. In the decades ahead, oil would become a major factor in Persia’s economy and foreign policy.
Reading Check
Comparing
How was Reza Shah Pahlavi's modernization of Persia different from Ataturk's transformation of Turkey?
Arab Nationalism
Oil became a major factor throughout the Middle East during this period. The use of gasoline-powered engines in various vehicles during World War I showed that oil was the fuel of the future. Foreign companies began to move into the Middle East to exploit its large oil reserves.
Partly in response to foreign influence, Arab nationalism grew after World War I and gave rise to Pan-Arabism. This nationalist movement was built on the shared heritage of Arabs who lived in lands from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa. Today, this area includes Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco. Pan-Arabism emphasized the common history and language of Arabs and recalled the golden age of Arab civilization. The movement sought to free Arabs from foreign domination and unite them in their own state.
The Middle East, 1920s, Cf. http://www.phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode&wcprefix=nap&wcsuffix=2721
Map Skills
Population movements and foreign influences changed the Middle East after World War I.
1. Locate
(a) Turkey (b) Persia (c) Palestine (d) the Persian Gulf
2. Human-Environment Interaction
What natural resource was discovered in the Middle East around this time? What effect did its discovery have on the region?
3. Make Inferences
List the ways foreign influence affected the Middle East in the 1920s.
Arabs were outraged by the European-controlled mandates set up at the Paris Peace Conference. During World War I, Arabs had helped the Allies against the Central Powers, especially the Ottoman empire. In return for their help, the Allies led the Arabs to believe that they would gain independence after the war. Instead, the Allies carved up the Ottoman lands, giving France mandates in Syria and Lebanon and Britain mandates in Palestine and Iraq. Later, Britain gave a large part of the Palestinian mandate, Trans-Jordan to Abdullah for a kingdom.
Arabs felt betrayed by the West—a feeling that has endured to this day. During the 1920s and 1930s, their anger erupted in frequent protests and revolts against Western imperialism. A major center of turmoil was the British mandate of Palestine. There, Arab nationalists and Jewish nationalists, known as Zionists, increasingly clashed.
Reading Check
Examining
How were many Middle Eastern states created after World War I?
The Problem of Palestine
Posters encouraged visitors and settlers to go to Palestine. At the same time, Palestinian Arabs tried to limit Jewish settlement in the area.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Brief History
Since Roman times, Jews had dreamed of returning to the land of Judea, or Israel. In 1897, Theodor Herzl (hurt sul) responded to growing anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jewish people,in Europe by founding the modern Zionist movement. His goal was to rebuild a Jewish state in Palestine. Among other things, violent pogroms against Jews in Russia prompted thousands of them to migrate to Palestine. They joined the small Jewish community that had lived there since biblical times.
During World War I, the Allies made two conflicting sets of promises. First, they promised Arabs their own kingdoms in former Ottoman lands, including Palestine. Then, in 1917, the British attempted to win the support of European Jews by issuing the Balfour Declaration. In it, the British advocated the idea of setting up “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. The declaration noted, however, that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” Those communities were Arab. The stage was thus set for conflict between Arab and Jewish nationalists.
Vocabulary Builder
advocated—(ad vuh kayt id) v. supported or favored
From 1919 to 1940, tens of thousands of Jews immigrated to Palestine due to the Zionist movement and the effects of anti-Semitism in Europe. Despite great hardships, Jewish settlers set up factories, built new towns, and established farming communities. At the same time, the Arab population almost doubled. Many were immigrants from nearby lands. As a result, Palestine's population included a changing mix of newcomers. The Jewish population, which was less than 60,000 in 1919, grew to about 400,000 in 1936, while the Muslim population increased from about 568,000 in 1919 to about 1 million in 1940.
At first, some Arabs welcomed the money and modern technical skills that the newcomers brought with them. But as more Jews moved to Palestine, tensions between the two groups developed. Jewish organizations tried to purchase as much land as they could, while Arabs sought to slow down or stop Jewish immigration. Religious differences between Jews and Arabs heightened tensions. Arabs attacked Jewish settlements, hoping to discourage settlers. The Jewish settlers established their own military defense force. For the rest of the century, Arab and Jews fought over the land that Arabs called Palestine and Jews called Israel.
Reading Check
Explaining
Why did the Balfour Declaration produce problems in Palestine?
Chapter 18 References
The End of the British Empire, Cf. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/g3/default.htm
Video clips of Gandhi and other Indian leaders
The life of Gandhi
Find out more about African independence
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Brief History
Oil
Section 2 Preview
Ch. 17 Sec. 1 Quiz is on Thursday. Be sure to consider the Quiz Prep Page.
Ch. 17 Sec. 2 Quiz is on Monday. Be sure to consider the Quiz Prep Page.
Israeli Greeting Card for Passover: Who Let the Jews Out
Email to gmsmith@shanahan.org
Wednesday: p. 556, History Through Art
Reading Check
Examining
Why were artists and writers after World War I attracted to Freud's theory of the unconscious?
