Last week we asked, What if new isn’t always better? looking at some of the implications of the Paris Peace Conference and the changes imposed on nations by the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.

It comes as no surprise that peoples who had suddenly gained new ‘masters’ found themselves questioning their rights, attempting to seek control over their own destiny as nations. As a result, during the years between the First and Second World Wars, there was a significant move towards nationalism by way of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism.

For centuries empires had ‘gathered’ countries into their sphere of influence, and then, with the League of Nations mandate system, some nations that had previously been controlled by countries who ended up on the losing side of the First World War were in essence ‘handed over’ to the ‘winners’.

The allocation of power resulted in segregation and racial domination, which sadly we are still witnessing today. Some historians have argued that for a world order to succeed after colonial rule it needed to be more than just a jigsaw of independent nations: it required a global vision.

During the 1920s and 1930s emerging thinkers and intellectuals, who were moving across the globe as a result of post-war migration, provoked a fresh look on the world order. Paris and Mexico City were two hubs that drew people together. Many brought their ideas of nationalism, developed further by interaction with each other, as well as with French intellectuals.

Through this merging of ideas, colonised people attempted to be active in changing their future. Some historians suggest these ‘cosmopolitan travellers’ acted as spokespersons, debating a version of nationalism based on what they had experienced on their travels. Others argue that their nationalistic goals were to create a way of life focused entirely on the individual needs of each ethnic community.

In the blog post, Looking back to the future, I explored the concept of what it means to be ‘modern’. So, it’s interesting to note that some historians who consider themselves ‘modernists’ have argued that nationalism was a ‘modern’ invention, contrasting with one based on ancient symbols, myths, popular customs, and deep-rooted ethnic loyalties.

Perhaps it is worth asking, to what extent did anti-nationalist ideas come from the West in the first place, with so many postcolonial political leaders having been educated in ‘the West’? Also, once the changes took place and colonies became independent nations, who was in control? Did the control merely shift from colonial and imperial masters to intellectuals and idealists who then became the controllers, thereby never really making the individual’s right to self-determination a reality?

Many historians suggest that the League of Nations mandate system was responsible for institutionalising racial hierarchy. It offered unequal membership to colonised peoples, and justified European imperialism through ‘trusteeship’ and oversight, perpetuating colonial domination under a new guise. Rolling forward, some would point out that in many parts of the globe, the thinking that existed during the interwar years when the League operated, is still an underlying factor in political thinking today.

During the middle and later decades of the 20^th century, across the world nations strived to consolidate their independence, but the process was never going to be straightforward. Leaders sought not only to free their countries from the grip of empire but to create a world where the principles of equality and non-domination would be realised. One key feature of these leaders’ global vision was their sense of solidarity with other anti-colonial movements across the world. For example, when the Ghanaian people gathered for Independence celebrations in March 1957, they were congratulated on their “hard won independence”, ready to fight their own battles, but urged to join together to fight for liberation of the whole African Continent.

An excellent analysis of the experience of peoples in the global south is presented in Vijay Prashad’s book, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World. He writes of the successes and failures of what he calls the Third World project, from the people’s perspective and through the struggles of key individuals, some of whom will go on to become leaders of independent nation states, others leaders of anti-colonial armed forces, and others who used their spoken and written voices to shift thinking and expose injustice. Prashad skilfully interweaves the many tragedies resulting from widespread poverty, inequality, and conflict, with global political and economic wrangling.

He suggests reasons for the ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, amid the variety of ways Third World countries attempted to disentangle themselves from their colonial masters, citing the use, distribution and manipulation of resources in the widest possible sense: economic, political, military, land, natural reserves, and people.

Prashad reminds us that for much of the world the concept of boundaries is a relatively new concept. Carving up swathes of land as a means of denoting ownership was an anathema to many peoples from the global south who were used to moving across the land for food, for trade, and for religious purposes. Geographical boundaries were meaningless to communities who were formed on the basis of shared language or beliefs. Yet it was only by controlling territory and inhabitants that an authority was able to achieve any kind of independent nation state.

Time and again Prashad throws light on the difficulties peoples in the global south encountered in their attempts to obtain autonomy. Some tried to form alliances within the Third World, while others opted for either ‘peaceful co-existence’ or ‘non-alignment’. In essence, the darker nations were faced with a choice, either to look outwards towards a socialist or capitalist future, or inwards towards a restructuring of their own economies. But that in itself necessitated handouts and reliance on finance, either through direct finance, or via the imposition of unfavourable tariffs on resources, from the very colonists from which they were trying to extricate themselves.

In some cases, capitalism was cast aside, only to be replaced by military dictatorships, who chose to rule by fear and persecution on racial, religious and cultural grounds. Sadly, today we continue to see internal factions within many nation states, each competing for control. Freedom and independence for populations continue to be hard won and many would argue have yet to be achieved in so many countries across the world.

Perhaps the desire for freedom and independence is intrinsic to all of us.  They were certainly factors that persuaded Marcus Chase to move from London to Hastings in Sussex, leaving behind his family and friends in search of a new life. We meet Marcus in 1960, in Storms of Change, the first of the Mountfield Road Mysteries. Marcus has just stepped into the local grocer’s to pick up a few provisions when he hears a news broadcast.

‘Whether the shopkeeper had turned the volume up on his wireless for his own entertainment, or that of his customers, I wasn’t the only one to pause and listen.

One hundred thousand protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square today as part of the third annual Aldermaston march by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, to protest against the atom bomb.

It was a reminder of why I had moved into Number 1, Mountfield Road, why I had left family, friends and my past behind. If we were all going to be blown to hell in a handcart, then I better make sure I lived the best life I could, grabbing at any new experience, wherever that took me.’

Looking for a new and different life has led people over the centuries to turn to religion, others to the supernatural, with beliefs waxing and waning throughout the years. In the next post in this series, What is real? I question whether myth and magic still exist in our rational, modern-day life and whether it is hiding in plain sight in another guise!

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To continuing exploring the topic of nationalism, take a look at:

• Adom Getachew, Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination.
• Michael Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis: Interwar Paris and the Seeds of Third World Nationalism
• Vijay Prashad. The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World.